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Reading and Phonics

Reading and Phonics

Phonics

High quality phonics teaching is at the heart of early education, securing the crucial skills of word recognition that, once mastered, enable children to read fluently and automatically. Once children are fluent readers, they are able to concentrate on the meaning of the text and make the shift between learning to read and reading to learn. Reading is seen as a skill so essential to access the world around them.

In school we follow the Sounds-Write programme to teach phonics. We aim to ensure that all children are fluent readers by the time they leave KS1 and have a love and enjoyment of reading. All adults involved with teaching phonics access a high quality training programme on the delivery of Sounds Write. Our reading scheme in Reception and Year One is entirely decodable, using Sounds-Write texts and Phonics Dandelion Readers.

Phonics and spelling

The Sounds-Write programme is used to teach phonics and spelling. We begin teaching an awareness of sound and sound identification in Nursery and as children show readiness they begin to access the initial code of Sounds-Write phonics. All pupils in Reception begin the initial code in the September of their Reception year. They continue on their phonics journey throughout Year One and into Year Two, with the aim of leaving KS1 as fluent readers, secure in word building and recognition.

We explicitly teach the 3 skills of:

  • Blending
  • Segmenting
  • Phoneme manipulation (sound swapping)

The children are taught to decode and encode by understanding 4 clear concepts:

  • Letters are symbols that represent sounds that they sa
  • Sounds can be spelt using 1,2,3 and 4 letters – f, oa, air, eigh
  • The same sound can be spelt in different ways – bone, coat, toe, window, shoulder
  • The same spelling can represent different sounds – bread, eat, great

All adults in school use the same consistent, concise language about sounds and spelling when teaching. We say that the letters spell sounds they do not say sounds. We use phrases such as:

In this word…
If this was…this would be…
This can spell…what else can it spell?
Say the sounds and read the word.
Where should children be at this point?
Where are they going to next?
What sounds do children know?

Consistency of time and resources are applied effectively to support the teaching of daily phonics. The discrete teaching of phonics and reading has become a natural and everyday part of every aspect of the curriculum.

Pupils in EYFS and KS1 are given additional support as required to master their phonics. Pupils in KS2, who have gaps in the phonics, continue to be supported through timely and effective intervention and decodable readers for older pupils.

Please take a look at our guide for more information:

Early Reading

As a school, we acknowledge that a teacher of reading (which is every teacher) requires secure knowledge of each of the 5 areas below and should therefore teach reading as a skill which incorporates many other skills.

Parent links- Free course

Part 1:  https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/

Part 2: https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write-part-2/

Additional reading support for vulnerable children

  • Children in Reception and Year 1 who are receiving additional phonics Keep-up sessions read their reading practice book to an adult daily.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

  • Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.
  • Weekly content grids map each element of new learning to each day, week and term for the duration of the programme.
  • Lesson templates, Prompt cards and ‘How to’ videos ensure teachers all have a consistent approach and structure for each lesson.
  • The Reading Leader and SLT use the Audit and Prompt cards to regularly monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

Ensuring reading for pleasure

‘Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.’ (OECD 2002)

‘The will influences the skill and vice versa.’ (OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

  • We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Our Lady Star of the Sea and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
  • Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
  • In Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.
  • Children from Reception onwards have a home reading record. The parent/carer records comments to share with the adults in school and the adults will write in this on a regular basis to ensure communication between home and school.
  • As the children progress through the school, they are encouraged to write their own comments and keep a list of the books/authors that they have read.