Early reading

At St Helen’s Primary Academy, we are committed to ensuring all our children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We use the Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics programme to support the progression towards fluency reading and writing for every child. Children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can further develop their skills in comprehension, spelling and vocabulary. Children learn a simple and then complex alphabetic code. Reading books are matched appropriately (to the sound’s children are learning and already know) and progress cumulatively. 

Phonics is essential for children to succeed so the effective teaching of phonics is of the highest priority to St Helen’s!

• Phonics is taught 5 x a week to EYFS, Y1 and Y2 until they have mastered the programme.

• Phonics ‘keep up’ sessions are taught daily to Y3 and Y4 students who are falling behind with their decoding and fluency skills to ensure they are provided opportunities to make accelerated progress.

• FreshStart is taught to Y5 and Y6 students  who are falling behind with their decoding and fluency skills to ensure they are provided opportunities to make accelerated progress.

• In EYFS, continuous provision reflects the progression through the phonics programme to ensure children are using and developing taught skills.

• Children are grouped according to their reading progress. 

• Children who are falling behind the expected rate of progress are quickly identified and placed on a fast track intervention programme to allow them to keep up. The interventions are targeted to individual needs to ensure children catch up as quickly as possible. This process is closely monitored by our early reading/phonics lead. 

• A home reading system is in place to consolidate current learning with the matched RWI reading book and a free choice pleasure for reading book. 

• Adults read stories daily to promote a love of reading, model story reading and expose children to a wide range of texts.  

• Children are taught to: 

- Decode letter/sounds correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills 

- Read tricky words (red words) on sight

- Understand what they have read 

- Read aloud with fluency and expression 

- Write confidently, with a focus on vocabulary and grammar 

- Spell quickly and easily by segmenting sounds in words 

- Acquire good handwriting

Through the effective teaching and monitoring of systematic phonics, our priority is for children to become fluent readers by the end of KS1. Children will become confident readers by reading books closely matched to their phonics knowledge. The programme will provide children the skills needed to focus on their fluency and comprehension throughout school. Exposing children to phonics early means that children become confident readers and writers early. The impact of our effective phonics provision ensures we are providing children with all the skills they need to succeed throughout their education and lives. 

Micro level - Formative assessment (Task by task) 

Ongoing AFL during lessons through: 

- Eliciting information through questioning and dialogue 

- Providing feedback with clear direction on how to improve 

- Helping children to understand how to become successful (criteria) 

- Modelling of correct pronunciation of sounds 

- Modelling of correct spelling

Meso level - Lesson by lesson assessment 

- Recap and recall of previous sound knowledge and spelling 

- Sounds are retaught the next lesson if not secure to ensure learning is consolidated 

Macro level - End of unit

Read Write Inc termly assessments to assess and check progress. This allows for pupils to be placed into the correct group in the programme for their next steps developmentally. 

Mega level - Standardised test 

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check 

Year 2 Phonics Screening Check (resit) 

Listen to your child read their home reading book daily. 

Read your child different books at home to build their love for reading. 

Watch the videos below to understand what Phonics is and how you can help your child.