Reading and Phonics
Phonics and Decoding
At St John’s Green Primary School we follow the ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ (ELS) accredited phonics programme to teach your children to read.
The phonics programme matches the expectations of the English National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals. We have clear expectations of pupils’ phonics progress term by term, which are fully aligned to our school’s phonics programme (ELS), from EYFS to Year 2. By the end of EYFS, all children should be able to read words and simple sentences accurately, with increasing speed and fluency.
Phonics is prioritised in the teaching of early reading. We aim to provide high quality, systematic phonic work taught discretely in EYFS and KS1 for a minimum of 20 minutes per day.
We believe that phonics sessions should be engaging, interactive and delivered at a quick pace. Sessions should include aspects of physical development and engagement, as well as oral and auditory phonics
practice.
Phonics is taught by teachers and LSA’s in EYFS and KS1 to the whole class generally and if required, to additional small groups of children. Some additional ELS sessions will be carried out for KS2 children, if required.
We recgonise the need for well-pitched reading books for our children, so they build fluency from an early age. Having texts which they can ‘win’ with, is key. We also encourage reading prior to phonics. Therefore, we have books available for children who are learning the behaviours, in order to become readers. We also encourage our more reluctant readers by ensuring they have access to age appropriate 'HiLo' books.
Our children are assessed every 5 weeks, as part of the ELS teaching programme. Our assessments support the teaching teams when grouping children for phonics and spelling teaching.
We have spent time matching all of our scheme books with the Essential Letters and Sounds phonics sequence. Our reading scheme has been organised and colour-coded by our school and matched to our phonics teaching, in order for all children to have reading books which they can decode from EYFS, onwards.
Light Green- Phase 1
Grey-Phase 2
Purple - Phase 3 single sounds
Peach - Phase 3 digraphs
Red- Phase 3 trigraphs
Blue - Phase 4 consolidation
Brown - Phase 5 digraphs
Dark Green - Phase 5 split digraphs
Gold- Phase 5 consolidation
White - Phase 6 ed and ing endings
Pink Phase 6 er and est sounds
Lilac- Phase 6 other suffixes
Black - Phase 6 consolidation
Yellow -Deepening Comprehension 1
Orange - Deepening Comprehension 2
BoomReader is used in all year groups to support the reading journey between home and school. Each child from EYFS through to Year 6 has their own reading journey captured in one place for both parents and teachers to share and use to support children’s individual progress in reading.
Through using BoomReader, parents can easily read the successes and next steps identified by our teaching team for their child while they are in school, and at the same time, share information with their child’s class teacher of how their child is reading at home. For example, teachers and parents may note down any reading successes, any 'harder to read' words or general comments about how they were able to discuss a text.
Pupils can also log their own reading, create their own avatar, spend their gems and challenge their friends using the Go Apps - Pupil Portal.
Getting started is quick and easy.
Every child was provided with a letter that contains our school code and their own unique pin code (if you need another one, please let us know). Using the GoApps for parents (iOS & Android) or a web browser using the link go-read.co.uk parents are able to enter the school code and their child’s pin when prompted and that’s it, they're ready!
If parents require any additional help or support they are able to use the chat function on go-read.co.uk.
Individual Reading
Alongside the school’s reading scheme, we also use our Book Bingo challenge sheets.
Each pupil has a Book Bingo Chart attached to their Reading Record. The aim is to complete their chart by choosing a square and reading that particular text e.g. a fairy tale or a book by Michael Morpurgo. The books can be chosen from the reading areas in their classrooms, a book from the school library (with permission), a book from home or a book from the local library.
There are three charts to complete during the year: Autumn Term, Spring Term, Summer Term.
The aim of these Book Bingo sheets, is to encourage our children to read a wide range of texts and genres, and understand that we read for pleasure. Our staff are also encouraged to complete the sheets, as we believe that we are all readers and we are role models for our children.
Guided Reading
Guided Reading sessions are made up of three parts:
- before reading discussion
- independent reading
- after reading discussion
The main goal of guided reading is to help children use reading strategies whilst reading for meaning independently.
Guided Reading takes place daily, for 15 to 20 minutes in each class. The children are grouped and take part in their session once a week. In these sessions, the children unpick texts and use vocabulary exploration, reference points and teacher knowledge to understand a range of texts, authors’ choices and ‘higher order’ reading skills. The children access texts which are slightly more challenging than their capabilities; high expectations and adult support required.
During reading the teacher can;
- ‘listen in’ to individual students
- observe the reader’s behaviours for evidence of strategy use
- assist a student with problem solving using the sources of information - the use of meaning, structure and visual information on extended text
- confirm a student’s problem-solving attempts and successes
- give timely and specific feedback to help students achieve the lesson focus
Shared Reading
Shared Reading happens in every class. It is a session which is led by the teacher and is a daily opportunity to expose our children to high quality texts, model the reading process from decoding, talking about and knowing the different features of a genre or text, through to inference and deduction skills.
We use Big Books, text extracts, eBooks and other sources to model the reading skills required to access texts. We also ask comprehension questions throughout these sessions, to ensure that all children understand what the content of the focus text, is. As part of our Shared Reading, we also have ‘Word of the Day’ which is having a huge impact on expanding the children’s vocabulary. They then use these wonderful words, in their Writing. Win, win!
Story Time
Everyday, in every class, we have ‘Story Time’. This is a wonderful part of the day, where the children have time to sit and listen to their teacher reading them a story.
We are instilling in our children , the importance of reading for pleasure, seeing reading an escape; a way of transporting ourselves into new worlds and experiences…and to enjoy!
Celebrating Readers
We understand that children love to be recognised for their learning attitudes and personal achievements. This is certainly the case for Reading. Therefore, every class has a Reading Mascot, which is a book character.
Each class teacher will nominate a child to be their Reader of the Week. The child will then receive the mascot, which they will keep with them, in school, for the forthcoming week.
Key Texts
EYFS
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6