Phonics & Early Reading: Vision & Overview

PHONICS & EARLY READING: VISION & OVERVIEW

  Mrs Miller

'ALWAYS START WITH WHY'

Phonics At Mayfield

At Mayfield Primary School we strive to ensure that all of our children become successful, fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One and believe this is achievable through a combination of strong, high quality, discrete phonics teaching combined with a whole language approach that promotes a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ culture. We aim for all of the children at Mayfield, to leave school at the end of Key Stage 2 with a genuine passion for reading and to have obtained all of the skills they need to tackle any book of their choosing.

To ensure that our children are able to read and write successfully, we use the programme: Red Rose Letters & Sounds to teach phonics. Phonics teaches children that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words. Children’s knowledge of the English alphabetic code – how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language – supports their reading and spelling.  Red Rose Letters and Sounds aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children to read by developing their phonics knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting in Reception year (in Mayfield’s case), with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by the age of 7.

There is a large amount of specific detail behind the programme we use.  This can be found in the Phonics Practical Guide which runs alongside the broader English document you are reading.  This can be downloaded in PDF form from the base of this page.

How We Assess Progress In Phonics

The impact of our reading curriculum can be seen in the children’s work and responses to learning via: books; verbal responses; drama/performance in our ABC Theatre or classroom.

Children’s learning is assessed informally in each lesson and teachers plan responsively for next steps - often using the aforementioned strategies alongside the evidence displayed in books. These activities are also used at the end of a unit and help to provide evidence for summative judgements made using the Key Milestones Assessment Documents.         

Phonics assessments are submitted every half term (usually every 6 weeks) with the reading quadrant running along this data, for all pupils who are accessing phonics throughout school, including those pupils in KS2. This allows for the fluidity of instant intervention for those pupils who require additional support. Summative judgements for reading are submitted formally twice a year, using the evidence gathered, stating whether each child is working at the expected standard, towards the expected standard, at greater depth within the expected standard or at a pre-key stage standard.

We use Reading Stations & The Reading Gang to aid memory retention. The most frequently used strategy is our Brain Gym opportunities which are devised to hold some of the activities highlighted above but above all else as a planned opportunity for daily review.

How We Record Outcomes In Phonics

Our children offer a huge range of daily starting points and school readiness, therefore we have carefully considered ways of demonstrating progress and outcomes and how these must be adaptable to suit the needs of learners and the requirements of the subject. Therefore each subject has its own bespoke way of gathering evidence from learners that are not simply restricted to traditional pupil exercise books - otherwise recording work becomes a barrier to learning rather than a chance to celebrate children’s achievements and specialist skills and knowledge in areas where they may otherwise excel.

Early Reading In Our Early Years Setting

From the start of their school experience, children are immersed in a world of literature with books chosen to stimulate their imagination. The children are taught to tune into sounds which they hear in both the classroom and outdoor environment. They learn how to listen through story, games, rhymes and talk. Children are introduced to the conventions of books, reading from left to right, regarding the illustrations as an integral to the story, turning the pages singly etc. The use of stories and rhymes is key at this point. Children are encouraged to act out well known tales and join in with a repertoire of nursery rhymes. There is a very strong focus on listening to familiar stories and puppets and role play help to bring these alive. We provide a reading rich environment beginning with the children’s own names and including the use of captions, labels and instructions. To support reading at home. Two fully decodable books which have been already read with the adults in school are then sent home for the children to practice applying their phonic knowledge to their reading. Parents communicate with school through comments in a reading log. During the week, the children are encouraged to take the opportunity to choose a book with their family from our ’Race Across the World’ library. They also have continual access to our classroom books which match our phonics teaching and our daily reading practice sessions as well as carefully selected books which are linked to our carefully mapped out EYFS curriculum.

Early Reading In Year 1

As the children progress into Key Stage 1, they continue to develop and consolidate their growing knowledge of sounds or phonemes and their associated graphemes.  Within a group, children are taught sounds in a lively and  engaging lesson.  They continue to read phonics books which contain the sounds they know so that they can read with increasing fluency. Children’s comprehension or understanding of the story is developed through multiple readings, making predictions, book discussions, retelling events and answering questions. 

Supporting Early Readers

Children who are reading below the level expected for their age are identified through assessment and rigorously supported to make rapid progress. Children in KS2 who are new to English attend daily phonics lessons until they are able to decode texts accurately and read fluently. Regular phonics assessments track their progress throughout. 

In Phonics, children’s work is gathered in: 

Individual Exercise Books & Through Verbal Responses