Early Reading and Phonics

We believe that reading is at the centre of learning. We base our reading on well-known authors and children are given the time to immerse themselves in stories.

We ensure that early language development is key to opening up a whole new world of vocabulary, provide age-appropriate phonics provision and promote a love of reading by immersing children in books and bring reading to life

Pupils are taught phonics using the Read Write Inc (R.W.I.) programme. Pupils work within ability groups which are defined by their performance on R.W.I. phonic assessments.

Pupils are re-assessed every 5 weeks and the groups are reorganised accordingly. The RWI lead ensures that specific sounds are planned for all staff delivering phonics and by using the teacher’s handbooks, set routines are followed to ensure consistency and continuity.

All staff are responsible for organising their R.W.I groups, with the support of the R.W.I lead as required.

Delivery of Phonics

• Initial sounds are taught in a specific order.
• Sounds taught should be ‘pure’ ie ‘b’, not ‘buh’ as this is central to phonic teaching and ability to recognise sounds in words.
• Children are to be taught that the number of graphemes in a word always corresponds to the number of phonemes. This greatly aids spelling.
• Set 2 sounds are to be taught after Set 1 (initial sounds)
• Letter names are to be introduced with Set 3.

Assessment and Recording

Children are assessed throughout every lesson. Every time partner work is used the teacher assesses the progress of the children. The teacher assesses how children:

• read the grapheme chart
• read the green and red word lists
• decode the ditty/story
• comprehend the story
   

Each group leader identifies pupils that need extra reinforcement of a particular element that has been covered and they are supported by ‘Pinny time’ after the session so that they keep up.

Monitoring and Review

The R.W.I. lead organises the assessment of all pupils accessing phonics and designates pupils to the correct groups, assigns leaders to groups, ‘drops in’ on R.W.I. groups to give advice and to informally check that pupils are in the correct groups.

Where necessary the R.W.I. lead models lessons, directs staff to the appropriate teaching spaces and is responsible for reporting to the governors about the quality of the implementation of R.W.I. and the impact on standards.

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school.

Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1.

Files to Download