Reading and Phonics

The Power of Reading

'Of all the subjects taught in school, reading is first among equals - the most singular in importance because all others rely on it.
Excellence in almost any academic subject requires strong reading.'
Reading Reconsidered, 2016

Early Reading in EYFS

In EYFS, children are assessed using the development matters statements for age related expectations every half term and tracked on O Track.

Children in Nursery are working at becoming secure in phonological awareness and oral blending and segmenting. If appropriate, the children will start to become familiar with some grapheme-phoneme correspondences through a playful and multisensory approach using songs, actions and stories whilst they continue to learn to sequence, blend and segment sounds orally.

The development matters statements are clear in that children who are within the 30-50 month band are working towards securing the skills of Phonological Awareness. When children are securing the 30-50 months stage for reading and writing, they will enter the 40-60 month band and begin to learn to use the written graphemes for reading and spelling independently. Nursery children will develop their communication and language and in turn their understanding and appreciation of quality literature. To this end, children are invited to borrow books from the Nursery ‘library’ to share and enjoy at home with their parents.

We teach phonics daily in key worker groups. The order of each session follows a structured plan. These sessions always follow the same structure which consists of:

Consolidation (flashcards of previous sounds and tricky words learnt)
Teach (introducing the new letter sound, name and formation)
Practise (interactive games to practise reading and writing with the phonemes)
Apply (where children read or write words or caption).

We follow a two-day programme for new sounds where we focus on reading the sound and words on the first day and writing them on the second day.
The order in which we introduce our sounds is linked to handwriting families (e.g. c,o,a,g,d).

Assessment: Children are assessed using our in-house assessment tracker to ensure children receive intervention, catch up/accelerated learning where appropriate and needed. The assessment of phonics is planned in intervals throughout the year to allow monitoring of assessment evidence to generate data which provides a picture of what the needs for intervention and support or acceleration are, and the impact of teaching and learning. Children continually apply their phonic knowledge through self-initiated and child initiated activities.

Please scroll down to the resource section to see our PowerPoint and the following website is useful for more information:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-owl/expert-help/phonics-made-easy

Reading in Key Stage One

In Key Stage One, we read with the children regularly on a 1:1 basis. They read books that closely match phonics teaching and are phonetically decodable. To ensure fidelity, these books are chosen from our core reading spine Pearson's Bug Club.
Children also experience books that are slightly more challenging thus exposing them to a wide range of genre, themes and vocabulary.

Whole Class Reading

Children experience reading teaching as a whole class. We look at fiction, non-fiction and poetry whilst teaching a range of reading skills.
What is more, they also experience being read to by an adult as well as reading for pleasure.

Children also experience books that are slightly more challenging thus exposing them to a wide range of genre, themes and vocabulary.

Reading corners

Every classroom includes resources enabling for pupils to read for pleasure. Reading corners, cushions, blankets and so much more is used to create a pleasurable, comfortable experience that aims to maximise the enjoyment of the reading process.

Reading in Key Stage Two

Children are read with regularly on a 1:1 basis.
Children who are fluent readers, read books that match their ability to decode, challenge their thinking and broaden their concepts of theme and genre.
Children who still require some support when decoding read books that are phonetically decodable. These books are chosen to support their word recognition, as well as develop their comprehension skills.

Whole Class Reading

Whole class reading continues into Key Stage Two. Children read a rich, quality text in depth. They read to establish meaning and read to analyse meaning. The books are methodically chosen to ensure challenge of all abilities, instil a love of reading and develop breadth and depth of understanding in other curriculum areas.