Phonics and Reading

Early Reading

At Foxdell Primary School we are passionate and believe that every child should have the best opportunities to become confident and fluent readers.

We use the Read, Write, Inc. scheme to teach children to read using phonics. Children start by learning about sounds in Reception to becoming fluent readers by the age seven.

Children are assessed and placed in colour groups depending on ability and are then assessed regularly during lessons and formally at the end of each half term. This ensures that the children are making progress and are in a group suited to their ability. Sessions take place every afternoon for 45 minutes.

We run daily tutoring sessions for our children at the early stages of reading. These interventions support children to make rapid progress within reading.

Pinny Time is used within classes. This helps to teach gaps in sound knowledge. Every child also reads to an adult each day.

Tight tracking by a reading lead is in place to ensure that progress is being made.

Children are provided with the following:

Book bag book. This is your child’s reading book which includes the key sounds and words that the child is currently learning.
Sharing book. This book is not intended for the children to read on their own. The purpose of this book is for an adult to read and share the book with the child at home. This provides the child with an engaging, age appropriate story line and further develops their language, reading and writing skills.
Library book: In Reception and KS1 all children visit the library weekly, your child has the opportunity to take home a book.
Virtual Lessons- In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (children who did not pass the phonic screening check) receive weekly Virtual Classroom links to support reading at home.

Whole Class Reading

When children have completed the Read, Write, Inc phonics programme, reading is developed during Whole Class Reading, using high quality texts and focused teaching.

We have chosen to adopt Ashley Booth’s reading scheme for our Key Stage 2 children. This provides children with wide ranging opportunities to read and enjoy high quality fiction, poetry and non-fiction texts.

During whole class reading sessions, children work to develop and hone their key reading skills: decoding, vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising.

Children continue to develop their reading fluency and pace, building upon their phonic knowledge and skills.

We recognise the importance of developing a rich and extensive bank of vocabulary; therefore, we teach vocabulary directly linked to the text every reading lesson, this ensures new vocabulary is embedded.

Ashley Booth’s Scheme- https://theteachingbooth.wordpress.com/2020/06/28/a-ks2-reading-curriculum/

Class Picture Books and Novels

We believe that all children should experience the pleasure of being read to. Each teacher will select a book and read it aloud to their class each day. In Early Years and KS1, we have special book boxes and the teacher/ children choose a special book. In KS2 children listen to their class novel, bringing the book to life through their expert and engaging delivery. We believe that all adults are role models who can excite, engage and inspire children to read for pleasure.

D.E.A.R

Drop Everything And Read time, better known as DEAR time, is a time regularly set aside for whole school reading. Each term, the whole school community engages in DEAR where they "drop everything and read" for a week. During the dedicated DEAR week, the bell rings at a different time during the school day which indicates to all children and staff to Drop Everything and Read. Children are invited to bring their own books in from home, or can choose to read a book from the classroom during this time.

Support for Parents