St Bede's Catholic Primary

Reading in the Early Years and Key Stage One.

Reading is a fundamental life skill - we place a huge amount of importance on the development of good phonological knowledge and the acquisition of early reading skills at St Bede's School.

All children are heard read daily by the Class Teacher/Teaching Assistant in guided reading sessions. Additional reading occurs each week with parent helpers, students or older children from Key Stage Two listening and supporting the children in their reading. Targeted groups are identified each term to support the development of reading for those children who may be falling behind. Advice on how to help your child at home is given out in the October Open Evening and can be found on this page.

We encourage parents to listen to their child read every day and to record a comment in their child's reading journal.

We use a range of schemes at St Bede's School to help develop the children's reading. In the Early Years and Key Stage One we have invested money in reading books that ensure the children apply their phonic knowledge from the teaching of Read, Write Inc such as Songbirds and Collins Big Cat Phonics. As the children become more fluent they will begin to use Rigby Star and Collins Big Cat independent reading books.

We assess the children's reading through guided and independent reading observations. We also use PIRA formal assessments at the end of each term to check the children's phonological and comprehension development. Through the use of these methods we can ensure that your child is making progress and move them onto the next coloured book band when ready and plan interventions if needed.

Comprehension is taught through a range of methods, such as discussing books and pictures in guided and independent reading, questions during story time, shared reading in English lessons such as exploring a leaflet or reading a postcard, reading challenge questions linked to the child's independent reading book (Year 2) before more formal comprehension practice is introduced in preparation for the SATs at the end of Key Stage One.

A huge priority for our school is reading for pleasure! All children visit the library van twice a year and select books to be taken home to share with their family. The children also enjoy a story on the library van and are exposed to new titles such as the latest virtual books that are becoming available on the market. Each child is given the opportunity to select a new library book to take home each week. The children are encouraged to sign up for a library card and we have strong links with the library at Morton Manor and Shadygrove Road.

Daily story time is enjoyed by all children in the Early Years and Key Stage One. Nursery, Reception, Year One and Year Two are paired with a Key Stage Two Class every half term for paired reading. We join in with World Book Day, have been lucky to have authors visit and discuss their work and encourage the children to become authors themselves.

PHONICS

Phonics Policy

Early Reading

The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout our school. Phonics is taught daily to all children in the Foundation Stage, Year 1 and some children further up the school. Staff systematically teach learners the relationship between sounds and written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. Phonics is delivered in (regularly) assessed groups and coaching is planned for those children who are working below expected levels.

Read Write Inc (RWI) is used as the spine for delivery of the phonics sessions. This programme is visual, audial and kinaesthetic, thus increasing the likelihood of rapid progress. Pupils will be given reading books which match closely to the phase of the phonics they are currently working on. This forms the foundation for lifelong readers.

RWI is based on the five P’s:

Children learn quickly in a positive climate.

Pace – Good pace is essential to the lesson.

Purpose – Every part of the lesson has a specific purpose.

Passion – This is a very prescriptive programme. It is the energy, enthusiasm and passion that teachers put into the lesson that bring the teaching and learning to life!

Participation - A strong feature of R.W.I lessons is partner work and the partners ‘teaching’ each other (based on research which states that we learn 70% of what we talk about with our partner and 90% of what we teach).

Planning - Pupils work within ability groups which are defined by their performance on R.W.I assessments. Pupils are assessed every half term and the groups are reorganised accordingly.

Children learn sounds in school which help them to read and write. They then practise these skills through reading 'Book Bag Books' at home which are specifically pitched to both consolidate learning and provide challenge in an engaging and fun way! This is what they look like.

All children in EYFS and KS1 have a reading record that they take home every day and this creates a strong link of communication between home and school.

Reception

In Reception, all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. Those who are ready, will begin to read simple words within books and write some of these.

Year 1 and above

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Phonic sessions take place daily.

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with a numonics (short rhyme) to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels

ay: may I play

ee: what can you see

igh: fly high

ow: blow the snow

oo: poo at the zoo

oo: look at the book

ar: start the car

or: shut the door

air: that’s not fair

ir: whirl and twirl

ou: shout it out

oy: toy for a boy

When they are very confident with all Set 1 and 2, they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

ea: cup of tea
oi: spoil the boy
a-e: make a cake
i-e: nice smile
o-e: phone home
u-e: huge brute
aw: yawn at dawn
are: share and care
ur: purse for a nurse
er: a better letter
ow: brown cow
ai: snail in the rain
oa: goat in a boat
ew: chew the stew
ire: fire fire!
ear: hear with your ear
ure: sure it’s pure?
tion: (celebration)
tious / cious: (scrumptious / delicious)
e: he me we she be

HELP YOUR CHILD WITH PHONICS

Use the link below to find out more information about RWI, including useful videos that will help you to support your child at home.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

Parent handbook 1.pdf

Parent book 2.pdf

PARENTS GUIDES FOR RWI GROUPS

sound-group-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

ditty-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

red-book-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

green-book-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

purple-book-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

pink-book-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

orange-book-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

yellow-book-level-rwi-letter-to-parents.pdf

blue-book-level-letter-to-parents.pdf

grey-book-level.pdf

Useful Links

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/supporting-you/families/reading-tips/how-to-read-with-your-child/

space

We were so excited to receive a grant of £500 from The Siobhan Dowd Trust. This money was to be spent by the pupils on a Bookshop visit. Children from each class spent a lovely afternoon choosing books which their friends would enjoy, and eating a delicious afternoon tea with cakes and hot chocolate!

Many, many thanks to Lucy at Bookends bookshop for making our visit so memorable.

Here are a few photos of our visit, plus some of us unpacking the books when they arrived. They are now safely in each class ready for all of our children to read and explore!