Phonics and early reading.
Rationale
For all children to
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Recognise the sounds that individual letters make
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Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make-such as 'sh' or 'oo'
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Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word
Approach
At Cherry Fold, we follow Red Rose Letters and Sounds. This scheme provides systematic planning and resources for children at our school from Nursery to Year 2. Phonics is used as the first approach for decoding unknown words and whole word recognition is used for ‘tricky’ (common exception) words. Phonics is also used to support segmenting to spell. Children have the opportunity to read and write daily within their phonics lessons. Children apply their phonic knowledge through their reading books at home and in guided reading sessions, during their English lessons, and throughout their day as they apply their decoding skills. Resources are available at all times to support children, such as word and sound mats on tables and phonics displays showing all of the known sounds and tricky words that have been taught.
SEND
Assessment
Children are assessed daily through formative assessment within the phonics session. This will include questioning and observing children reading and writing. Summative assessment takes place half termly across Reception and Year 1 and for the children in Year 2 upwards who did not pass the phonics screening check. We use the Phonics Tracker system for assessing, which is aligned with the Red Rose Letters and Sound scheme. This then matches the progression in which phonics is taught and data analysis from this feeds into our Pupil Progress meetings, to determine intervention content to support children
who are falling behind.
Phonics screening
The phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. It will identify the children who need extra help, so they are given support to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check in Year 2 so that we can track children until they are able to decode. The screening check is for all Year 1 pupils and children in Year 2 who previously did not meet the standard of the check in Year 1. It is a statutory requirement to carry out the screening check. It will be a short, simple screening check to make sure that all children have grasped fundamental phonic skills. It comprises a list of 40 words and non-words, which a child will read one-to-one with a teacher.
Intervention
Ongoing formative and summative phonics assessment ensures that any child who is falling behind receives quality phonics intervention. Phonics intervention may involve additional support for children during phonics sessions, or it may be 1:1 or small group booster sessions. We use Bounce Back Phonics to support the teaching of those children who are falling behind and need to catch up.
Reading books
All children have a reading book which they take home that matches their reading level. In EYFS and KS1 this will be a phonetically decodable book that matches their current level as determined by their most recent assessment, and from the later stages of Year 3 and upwards they will access books linked to Accelerated Reading. Reading books are changed at least weekly, with parents being given the opportunity to write in a reading record to offer feedback on their child’s progress. The children take part in a reading workshop daily which consists of a teacher read, LSA read, comprehension read and reading for pleasure across the week. Lesson one is decoding, lesson two is prosody, lesson three is comprehension and lesson four is reading for pleasure. The children then take the book home to read for a week. Children are assessed regularly and interventions are given when necessary.
How to pronounce pure sounds - A video to help
Phonics in action!
