Reading and Phonics
Phonics
At Chester-le-Street CE Primary School School we believe that the teaching of Phonics plays a key role in helping children learn to read, write and spell. We follow the Sounds~Write Phonics Scheme which is a high-quality program endorsed by the DfE. Our aim is for all children to be confident readers by the end of KS1. High quality Phonics teaching enables children to decode new words confidently and independently and leads to improved understanding. This will result in children being able to read for pleasure, undertake research and develop their comprehension skills. Sounds~Write phonics also teaches children how to spell words and this helps them to become confident writers.
Our daily phonics teaching follows this sequence:
Revisit and review
- Practise previously learned letters
Teach
- Teach a new phoneme
Teach blending and segmentation with phoneme
- Practise
Practise reading and or spelling words with the new letter
- Apply
Read and write a caption using one or more high-frequency words and words containing the new sound.
Please see our Phonics Policy Chester-le-street COFE 2020 for more details of how we teach Phonics.
Reading in the Early Years and Key Stage 1
Phonics Books
Pupils who are still learning to decode through phonics will receive a phonics book which has words containing sounds that they can read. These books are fully decodable and matched to the Sounds-Write Phonics Programme. The fine phonic progression ensures that all children can access the series as they embed their whole-class phonic teaching.
We have chosen Sounds-Write Readers and Dandelion Readers to motivate our young readers and turn them into reading superheroes!
Reading for Enjoyment Books
Pupils in the Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2 will also receive a reading for enjoyment book from the school library. These books are to read alongside an adult/ read by an adult as a shared reading experience. These books help pupils to develop an understanding of story structure, characters and setting. Pupils may not be able to read all of the words in these books as they may yet to be taught the sounds needed. We encourage pupils however to read known high frequency words, recognise tricky words and use pictures as clues.
Reading in Key Stage 2
Scheme Books
Pupils in Key Stage 2 may still receive an Oxford Reading Tree scheme book in order to further develop their fluency. When children are ready they will then progress to banded books which are used to ensure the children’s enjoyment of reading continues and grows.
Accelerated Reader
Once pupils from Year 3 onwards are able to read fluently, they can choose an Accelerated Reader book from their class library. These non scheme books are banded in levels of difficulty of the language used within the book and match to their assessed level of reading ability. These will be read each day in class and the children will have the opportunity to take a quiz on the book when they have finished to check their understanding of what they have read. Please see our AR policy for more information regarding Accelerated Reading. These books have been carefully selected so pupils have access to the latest releases and enjoy the best stories and poems by high quality authors.
School Library
All year groups in Key Stage 2 are able to access and borrow from the school library as a further reading for pleasure opportunity.