Reading and Phonics
Intent
At St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. We value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.
Implementation
Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1. We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy. Children in Year 1 review Phases 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy. Teaching reading We teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge. Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills: decoding, prosody and comprehension.
Impact
We use assessments to monitor progress both within the classroom daily and more formally every three-six weeks, to identify any child needing additional support. Daily keep up sessions are done with identified children to ensure children do not fall behind.
Weekly review lesson (each Friday) assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.
We aim for at least 80% of children to pass the Phonics screening at the end of year 1.
We aim for all children to become fluent readers by the time they leave KS1.
Little Wandle Letters and Sound Revised
At St Patrick's school we use Little Wandle's Letters and Sounds to support our Phonics sessions and Early Reading.
Link to Little Wandle site for parents
Reception - How to say phase 2 sounds for Autumn 1
Reception - How to say Phase 2 sounds for Autumn 2
Reading
Reading at St Patrick’s takes the highest priority, which is why it is placed it at the centre of our curriculum. Every child in our school is a reader and so are our teachers. As a school and staff, we understand the importance of developing children’s discrete word-reading skills and comprehension, but also the need to foster a passion and love for books and reading. These two elements are innately linked and rely on each other if children are to become life-long readers. At St Patrick’s, this is embedded in our school culture which begins as soon as children enter Nursery and continues throughout key stages one and two.
Reading for Pleasure and Purpose
The children take great pride and pleasure in have opportunities to read a range of texts from our library or through peer recommendations. We celebrate the gift of stories in our daily class reading session, where a book is shared by the class teacher at the end of the day.
For information about Reading beyond Year 1's phonic focus click here.