Reading - Leigh St Peter's C.E. Primary School

CURRICULUM

OUR READING CURRICULUM

Early Reading Journey

At Leigh St Peters Primary School, we believe that reading is the key to unlocking many of lifes doors. We strive to take our children on a magical reading journey from the moment they step foot into our School.

From the very first day children are saturated with nursery rhymes. Phonemic skill development gained from nursery rhymes has been scientifically proven to develop early reading. Whilst developing an ear for language, repetition of rhymes teaches children how language works and builds memory capacity through memorizing patterns. Nursery rhymes help develop inferencing skills, develop a rich vocabulary and help with speech development through developing the muscles in the mouth and tongue. Rhyming helps children to articulate words, modulate voices and enunciate clearly by saying them over and over.

Singing nursery rhymes daily also helps our children to develop auditory skills such as discriminating between sounds and develop an ear for the music of words. They introduce literary devices like alliteration and imagery. As well as expand childrens imagination and creativity. They are a great introduction to stories, with many containing a verses, which help children develop sequencing skills.

Every day our children listen to stories. A daily story helps them to continue expanding their knowledge of language, as well as develop their listening skills. It provides our children with mental stimulation, provides them with time to relax and maintain a state of calm, and improve focus and concentration. Reading out loud to children is a critical component of supporting childrens oral language development.

Children also have the opportunity to take part in early language experiences such as a weekly ‘show and tell’ session. This helps to build effective communication and listening skills as well as encourages emotional development.

Our early years team understand that oral language is the foundation for learning to read and write and is critical for supporting the development of childrens early literacy skills. We ensure our children experience this through modelling language at every opportunity and providing a language rich environment both indoors and outdoors. Our learning areas are designed with purposeful intent for staff and children to interact, share a focus, talk and take turns. Books are included in the environment and our children have access to librarys in their classrooms where they can choose from a range of books, helping to develop a love for reading. Children are taught how to handle books, turn pages, and develop print awareness.

We recognise that the strongest predictors of reading readiness include interest and motivation to read, oral language and narrative skills, book and print awareness. Alongside these pre-reading skills, we teach synthetic Phonics.

As a school we use the well recognised ‘Letters and Sounds’ phonics scheme to teach children Phase 1 Phonics. This is taught in Preschool and revisitied for consolidation at the beginning of reception. As a school we have also invested in ‘Bug Club Phonics’ to support the teaching of phonics and reading from phase 2 – phase 5. This is a fast-paced phonics programme taught from reception through to KS1. Its multisensory approach allows children to be interactive during lessons as they progress through each phase, helping to maintain that love for learning to read.

Reading Books

In the first half term of Preschool, children get to chose a book of their choice to share with a grown up. They are asked to share this book a minimum of three times a week. These books are given so children can experience listening to adults read in their home environment and experience quality time, developing that love for reading.

On entering reception, all children are given a picture based book whilst pre-reading skills are assessed. Once a child has begins phase 2 phonics, formative assessment is used to determine when a child is ready for a book containing print. These books are always phonetic based books, so children can apply the new sounds they have been learning. Children are asked to read with an adult a miniumum of three times per week. All reading books in Preschool and Reception are changed on a weekly basis.

Children are listened to read by and teacher or a teaching assistant once a week in reception.

Promoting a love for reading

We share a class story at the end of every day.
We provide an environment rich in opportunities for children to read.
We provide children with classroom librarys filled with a range of interesting books.
We celebrate ‘World Book Day’, where all the children and staff dress up as their faviour character from a book.
We encourage parent involvement through phonic based ‘Stay and Play’ sessions every term, where children get to take part in phonic activities with their grown ups. Phonic activities are modelled to parents and carers which can be used to support the children with reading at home.
We hold a ‘Reading Café’ afterschool once a week, to encourage parents and carers to come in and listen to their child read.

Below is a breakdown of the phonic phases, demonstrating the order in which children are taught and progress through each phase.

Phase 1

Phase 1 concentrates on developing speaking and listening skills and lays the foundation for the phonic work that starts in phase 2. Phase 1 is from birth and continues into Reception. In Phase 1, children are taught to listen to sounds in the environment around them and be able to say what it is eg: a telephone ring or car engine; this is called distinguishing differences in sounds. This is early sound work and will help children with sounds that are similar eg. s and x; b and p.

Your child will learn to read and spell tricky words. These are words that they have to read on sight because they may not have learnt the correct grapheme or the words can’t be blended eg said, was.

Phase 2

Children are taught letters that will help them blend 2 and 3 letter/sound words eg s-a-t, p-a-t, t-i-ck

Set 1	s	a	t	p
Set 2	i	n	m	d
Set 3	g	o	c	k
Set 4	ck	e	u	r
Set 5	h	b	f/ff	l/ll	ss
Tricky words:		the to no go I

Phase 3

Children are introduced to more graphemes that help them blend more words eg: ch-a-t r-i-ng r-ai-n c-ow s-oi-l

Set 6	j	v	w	x
Set 7	y	z	zz	qu
	ch	sh	th	ng
	ai	ee	igh	oa	oo
	ar	or	ur	ow	oi
	ear	air	ure	er
Tricky words:		he she we me be was you they all are my her

Phase 4

In phase 4 children work on identifying all the sounds in words, especially where there are 2 consonants together eg string. s-t-r-i-ng. Sometimes children write sring and miss the second consonant out. This is a common mistake and children need to be able to segment the word to hear all the sounds.

Tricky words:

said have like so do some come were there little one when out what

Phase 5

In Phase 5 children will learn alternative graphemes – that when said make the same sound eg:ai as in rain (r-ai-n); a_e as in came; ay as in day

Or are the same grapheme but different sounds eg ea as in tea; head and break

wh	ph	a_e	e_e	i_e
o_e	u_e	e	ay	ea
ey	ie	oe	ew	ue
au	aw	ou	oy	ir
Tricky words:		oh their people Mr Mrs looked called asked could

ENUCIATION VIDEO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s

Below are a list of websites you can use to help support your child with phonics and reading.