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English: Reading - P scales
| Descriptor | Guidance |
| P1(i) Pupils encounter activities and experiences. They may be passive or resistant. They may show simple reflex responses, for example, startling at sudden noises or movements. Any participation is fully prompted. |
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| P1(ii) Pupils show emerging awareness of activities and experiences. They may have periods when they appear alert and ready to focus their attention on certain people, events, objects or parts of objects, for example, attending briefly to interactions with a familiar person. They may give intermittent reactions, for example, sometimes becoming excited in the midst of social activity. |
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| P2(i) Pupils begin to respond consistently to familiar people, events and objects. They react to new activities and experiences, for example, withholding their attention. They begin to show interest in people, events and objects, for example, smiling at familiar people. They accept and engage in coactive exploration, for example, focusing their attention on sensory aspects of stories or rhymes when prompted |
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| P2(ii) Pupils begin to be proactive in their interactions. They communicate consistent preferences and affective responses, for example, reaching out to a favourite person. They recognise familiar people, events and objects, for example, vocalising or gesturing in a particular way in response to a favourite visitor. They perform actions, often by trial and improvement, and they remember learned responses over short periods of time, for example, showing pleasure each time a particular puppet character appears in a poem dramatised with sensory cues. They cooperate with shared exploration and supported participation, for example, taking turns in interactions with a familiar person, imitating actions and facial expressions. |
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| P3(i) Pupils begin to communicate intentionally. They seek attention through eye contact, gesture or action. They request events or activities, for example, pointing to key objects or people. They participate in shared activities with less support. They sustain concentration for short periods. They explore materials in increasingly complex ways, for example, reaching out and feeling for objects as tactile cues to events. They observe the results of their own actions with interest, for example, listening to their own vocalisations. They remember learned responses over more extended periods, for example, following the sequence of a familiar daily routine and responding appropriately. |
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| P3(ii) Pupils use emerging conventional communication. They greet known people and may initiate interactions and activities, for example, prompting another person to join in with an interactive sequence. They can remember learned responses over increasing periods of time and may anticipate known events, for example, pre-empting sounds or actions in familiar poems. They may respond to options and choices with actions or gestures, for example, by nodding or shaking their heads. They actively explore objects and events for more extended periods, for example, turning the pages in a book shared with another person. They apply potential solutions systematically to problems, for example, bringing an object to an adult in order to request a new activity. |
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| P4 Pupils listen and respond to familiar rhymes and stories. They show some understanding of how books work, for example, turning pages and holding thebook the right way up. |
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| P5 Pupils select a few words, symbols or pictures with which they are particularly familiar and derive some meaning from text, symbols or pictures presented in a way familiar to them. They match objects to pictures and symbols, for example choosing between two symbols to select a drink or seeing a photograph of a child and eye-pointing at the child. They show curiosity about content at a simple level, for example they may answer basic two key-word questions about a story. |
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| P6 Pupils select and recognise or read a small number of words or symbols linked to a familiar vocabulary, for example, name, people, objects or actions. They match letters and short words. |
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| P7 Pupils show an interest in the activity of reading. They predict elements of a narrative, for example, when the adult stops reading, pupils fill in the missing word. They distinguish between print or symbols and pictures in texts. They understand the conventions of reading, for example, following text left to right, top to bottom and page following page. They know that their name is made up of letters. |
The prediction can be demonstrated in any mode of communication used by the child. |
| P8 Pupils understand that words, symbols and pictures convey meaning. They recognise or read a growing repertoire of familiar words or symbols, including their own names. They recognise at least half the letters of the alphabet by shape, name or sound. They associate sounds with patterns in rhymes, with syllables, and with words or symbols. |
While letter sounds can be taught in all sorts of imaginative ways, their learning should not be emphasised at the expense of developing Speaking and Listening. |
| 1C Pupils can recognise familiar words or symbols in simple texts. They identify initial sounds in unfamiliar words. They can establish meaning when reading aloud simple sentences. They express their response to familiar texts by identifying aspects which they like and dislike. |
There is always likely to be some sort of prompting at this level. |
| 1B Pupils can read a range of familiar words or symbols and identify initial and final sounds in unfamiliar words. With support, they use their knowledge of letters, sounds and words to establish meaning when reading aloud. They respond to events and ideas in poems, stories and non-fiction.* |
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| 1A Pupils use their knowledge of letters, sounds and words to read simple texts with meaning. They comment on events or ideas in stories, poems and non-fiction. |