Pathways to Read – Primary School Reading Programme
A primary school reading programme designed to equip pupils from year 1 onwards with key skills to move them through the reading process towards becoming competent and fluent readers.
Pathways to Read units provide progressive development of reading skills that follow our mastery approach. The units, for use from year 1 to year 6, provide clear and detailed plans that ensure engaging and purposeful reading lessons. Each unit of work is expected to last a half-term, and there are 6 whole-class reading sessions provided per unit.
Pathways to Read guarantees complete coverage of the content domains, incorporating high-quality discussions that revolve around the essence of rich language. Our programme incorporates a variety of activities and tasks at every level, allowing pupils to enhance their vocabulary, make predictions, retrieve information and respond effectively using their mastery keys.
Pathways to Read covers reading comprehension and vocabulary development within the mastery approach and divides the national curriculum into three sections: ongoing skills, core skills and mastery skills. The planning ensures a consistent approach to reading across the school with clear, detailed lesson plans and resources linked to high-quality texts.
The units can be used thematically alongside our award-winning Pathways to Write programme to encourage a whole-school curriculum approach with the opportunity for topics to link across all year groups. Both programmes complement one another. However, they can be used successfully as stand-alone programmes.
★★★★★
Easton Primary – Headteacher
I love the range of texts chosen [for Pathways to Read], the comprehensive planning and how all the key skills are covered and repeated to ensure progress - fantastic!
★★★★★
Rock Ferry Primary – Deputy Headteacher
It [Pathways to Read] allows us to provide personalised learning plans for individuals and groups. It also has meant we can continue to read, read, read and to offer wider texts as well as exposing the children to wider vocabulary.
★★★★★
Charles Darwin Primary – Subject Leader
My class love the Pathways texts and our reading sessions are their favourite part of the day. The progress they have made since September has been superb. They now have the ability to discuss new vocabulary and are using it in their spoken language and written work. The texts themselves are really popular and the children love to reread those from previous terms, having increased confidence in reading a familiar, quality text. I have regular requests for books from the same authors or on similar themes and have been able to widen their reading for pleasure choices from this. I would recommend Pathways to Read 100%, the resources are high quality and easy to follow and ensure full curriculum coverage.
★★★★★
St Bernards Primary – Subject Leader
Pathways to Read is an innovative, exciting and inclusive sequence of learning which engages children with the many aspects of the National Curriculum through high-quality texts.
In these testing times, reading is an essential resource for escape and the planning units and slides that The Literacy Company provide, allow access to many wonderful worlds. Our children get to discover these worlds from the comfort of their classroom in a low-threat, high-impact environment. I would highly recommend these units to any teacher - they provide your students with a pathway to learning ... and imagination.
★★★★★
Iwade Primary – Writing Lead
We have recently started the Pathways to Read programme and love it! The text choices are superb and the whole programme is extremely comprehensive and well-resourced.
Key elements of Pathways to Read
Pathways to Read ensures a consistent approach to reading across the school and ensures that reading skills are taught explicitly and progressively. The programme uses inspiring books and novels that guarantee engaging and purposeful reading lessons.
Detailed whole-class reading plans for each unit to ease teachers' workload
Detailed grouped reading plans to follow on from each whole-class session for year 2 - year 6 (year 1 has whole-class sessions only)
Clear and supportive PowerPoints for each whole-class reading session
Progressive development of reading skills following a mastery approach
Develops reading comprehension skills through the mastery approach
Contributes to the development of cultural capital
Links creatively to the wider curriculum when combined with our Pathways to Write product
Progression document to support mixed age classes
Whole-school text and genre coverage overviews
Reading assessment grids
Introductory training materials
Flexible combination of whole-class and grouped reading sessions
A mastery approach to learning
Pathways to Read provides three categories of skills developed each half-term.
Ongoing skills
Linked to text choices and achieved through selection of teaching activities
Core skills
Prediction, vocabulary development and retrieval
Mastery skills
2-3 objectives are focused on for pupils to master over the course of the half-term
As the national curriculum for year 3/4 and year 5/6 are the same, there would be no issues in doing so. We have a progression document which would support with this.
How is a mixed age year 1/2 class managed?
In the mixed class, year 1 could join in with the whole-class, but when reading independently in the grouped session, year 1 would follow the progression of books in your chosen phonics programme.
There are two cycles of year 2 units for use in mixed age year 1/2 classes.
How many sets of books are there for mixed age classes?
There are 6 books per year group from year 2 to year 6. If your school had mixed age classes, you could choose which text you wanted to cover between the two mixed year groups. If you use Pathways to Write, you may want to link them with your planned Pathways to Write themes.
Would Pathways to Read replace guided reading as it is now?
We are working on a shared and grouped model. The grouped sessions would work in the same way as guided reading but with a clear mastery focus. You can teach it as whole-class and guided reading, as there is planning for both.
How many lessons per half-term are there?
There are 6 sessions. The 6 sessions consist of a whole-class session, a group session and a follow-on task. This could be run as a full reading lesson of up to 90 minutes or could be split into separate reading lessons.
Do the units have to be taught in order within the year group?
We have thought about the progression of skills and texts as we do with Pathways to Write. They also link with the Pathways to Write set 1 themes. It would be possible to move some of them around if needed whilst still ensuring skill coverage.
How does Pathways to Read link with Pathways to Write - would the class be working on two texts at the same time?
Your Pathways to Write text would be your writing focus (with some of the reading links we already have within it). Pathways to Read is more in depth for reading objectives and would be 20-30 mins a day with extracts/pages from texts. You can choose from 2 sets of Pathways to Read texts to match the texts you are using for Pathways to Write. This way you can select the Pathways to Read text that links with your Pathways to Write theme.
As it is a whole-class approach, would you encourage pupils to be in mixed ability pairs/groups?
We have a range of strategies within the units including peer support. A lot depends on the text and the reading expectations in that session.
Is the ideal to have a copy of each book between 2? The cost implications of this would be that schools would build up resources over time.
There are some texts you might wish to have half class sets for and others where just 1 or 2 copies would be required. There are around 3 texts in each year group where a half class set may be beneficial. With some of the novels, the book would be shared as part of a reading session say at the end of the day and then a section of text focused on in the actual Pathways to Read lesson. We provide a purchase guide to support with this.
Are the texts included in the package?
The supporting texts for the units of work can be purchased at Peters at 30% off the RRP price of the books:
*You will receive 30% discount off the RRP on the vast majority of books ordered for the Pathways to Read and Pathways to Write programmes. Items excluded from this offer: book packs, plus short discount items (a small number of academic titles, big books, and audio titles). This offer may not be used in conjunction with any other promotion
I am ready to start seeing a consistent approach to reading in my school.
