Phonics and Early Reading

Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends upon it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible. When children are taught the necessary skills and crack the ‘Reading Code’ as soon as possible, they are able to access the full curriculum.

We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why at Shakespeare, we prioritise making sure they develop a love of books as well as learning to read.

Across EYFS and KS1, we place a huge focus of word reading and decoding. This is supported by our strategic approach to teaching Phonics using the RWI scheme. Phonics underpins the teaching of early reading and continues throughout Key Stage One and into Key Stage Two, where necessary.  As children learn the complex skill of reading, we help develop skills of word recognition, reading fluency and making sense of a text. Throughout the day, the children are given lots of opportunity to practise and consolidate their decoding skills, building into fluency.

This, coupled with creating a love of books within children is the perfect blend of skill and enjoyment of being able to read. They are able to access an endless world of knowledge and escape into far away distant lands, meeting all kinds of wonderful characters. Shakespeare School strives to instil a love of books and the desire to read for enjoyment. We are determined to ensure that all children are equipped with the decoding and comprehension skills so that children are able and inspired to pick up a book, secure in the knowledge that they will be able to read effortlessly and become immersed in the text.

How do we teach reading using the Read Write Inc. Phonics Programme?

All of our staff have been trained to teach phonics using our whole school approach to RWI. We believe that it is very important that all the teachers and teaching assistants work in the same way, creating consistency for all of our children. As a school, we have ensured RWI training has been delivered to all of our staff and we continue to work alongside the English Hub and RWI development team. This enables us to continue to deliver and provide valuable CPD for staff which ensures the teaching of phonics remains excellent across school. This is continously followed up by the Reading Team in school, who support teachers and teaching assistants, ensuring that the children are learning phonics in the way we want them to learn. Our consistent approach to phonics ensures that children are given the best possible foundation for reading, writing and language skills.

We start teaching phonics through the Read Write Inc scheme to the children in our Reception classes. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down as soon as they start school. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. 

Children in EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 take part in a daily Read Write Inc. session (this continues for some children in KS2 as required.) Read Write Inc. Phonics depends upon children learning to read and write sounds effortlessly, so we make it simple and fun.

The phonic knowledge is split into two parts:

First we teach them one way to read and write the 40+ sounds in English. We use pictures to help, for example we make ‘a’ into the shape of an apple, ‘f’ into the shape of a flower. These pictures help all children, especially slower-starters, to read the sounds easily. Children learn to read words by sound-blending using a frog called Fred. Fred says the sounds and children help him blend the sounds to read each word.

Then we teach children the different spellings of the same sounds, for example, they learn that the sound ‘ay’ is written ay, a-e and ai; the sound ‘ee’ is written ee, e and ea. We use phrases to help them remember each sound for example, ay - may I play, a-e – make a cake?

The children practise their reading with books which are closely matched to their phonic knowledge and the ‘red words or common exception’ they know. This ensures that our children develop confidence and independence quickly. 

Within these sessions the children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘red words or common exception’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’.

Teachers read to the children every day, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.

How will I know how well my child is doing?

We will always let you know how well your child is progressing. As a school, we use various forms of assessment to find out how the children are getting on in Phonics. We use the RWI assessment tracker to monitor progess closely. This information supports teachers in deciding which RWI group they should be in. RWI groups are flexible and regularly reviewed. This ensures that they are able to succeed, whilst being challenged at the appropriate level. Children who are making slower progress in their reading and need extra daily practise in reading sounds and words will require overlearning to secure their phonics knowledge. Therefore, your child will have one-to-one support and access other interventions if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up. 

In the Summer term, the government asks us to complete a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. This gives us extra information about their progress and is shared with you in your child's end of year report. Children who do not meet the expected standard will continue to access phonics and be re-tested in Year 2. Over the last few years, the pass mark has been 32/40. Please click the following link to find out more: DFE - Phonics Screening Check Information for Parents

At various points within the year, we also use additional reading tests in Year 1 and 2, to support our summative assessments. This also helps us to tailor and carefully plan interventions, ensuring our children are at the level that they should be for their age. 

By the end of Year 2, your child should be able to read books aloud that are at the right level for their age with increased fluency.

See below our 'sticky knowledge' maps for Early Reading and Phonics.

Reading Comprehension

FAMILY FUN WITH PHONICS FEEDBACK 

"Great session! So useful!" 

"Really enjoyed the session. It helped me understand more of the phonics to help my daughter."

"It was lovely to be back in school and we both really enjoyed it. Thank you for organising." 

FAMILY FUN WITH PHONICS FEEDBACK 

" Lovely morning watching all the children having fun whilst learning... Taken some great ideas for home learning! Here's to more 'in school' fun activities!"

"All the games were really imaginative but simple enough to replicate at home... Really enjoyed coming in to see my daughter."

"The session was very interesting and it was good to see how the children learn in school. Thank you."

"In such a short time I learned a lot. Thank you. Hopefully more to come and thank you Miss Hayton for your time."