English

Phonics

Intent

Phonics (reading and spelling)

At Aylesham Primary School we believe that all children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. This programme is a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum, the Ofsted deep dive into reading and preparing your children to go beyond the expectations of the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Aylesham Primary School, we also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

All staff are trained in the delivery of Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds lessons and our Phonics Lead monitors and supports the delivery of these lessons to ensure fidelity to the programme.

Comprehension

At Aylesham Primary School, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

Because we believe teaching every child to read is important, we have an Early Reading Lead who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support staff, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme.

Implementation

Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1

We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible.
Children make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in the second week that all children are attending class.
We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:

Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read

Any child who needs additional practice will have Keep-up support throughout the week using the same procedures, resources and mantras as in the main lessons, but in smaller focused steps with more repetition.

We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check. These children urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen.

Teaching reading: Weekly Reading practice sessions at least twice a week

We teach children to read through reading practice sessions at least twice a week. These:

are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of children

use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids, (Application of Phonics to Reading).
Are monitored by he class teacher, who rotates and works withn each group on a regular basis.

Each reading session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

decoding

prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

In Reception these sessions start after the first termly assessment. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

In Year 2 we continue to teach reading in this way for any children who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

Home reading

The decodable reading practice book is taken home at the end of each week, for a week, to ensure success is shared with the family.

We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to engage our families and share information about phonics, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision, online.

Ensuring consistency and pace of progress

Every teacher in our school has been trained to teach reading, so we have the same expectations of progress. We all use the same language, routines and resources to teach children to read so that we lower children’s cognitive load.

Weekly content grids map each element of new learning to each day, week and term for the duration of the programme.
Lesson templates, Prompt cards and ‘How to’ videos ensure teachers all have a consistent approach and structure for each lesson.
The Reading Leader and SLT use the Audit and Prompt cards to monitor and observe teaching; they use the summative data to identify children who need additional support and gaps in learning.

Ensuring reading for pleasure

Reading for pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s success.

(OECD 2002)

The will influences the skill and vice versa.

(OECD 2010)

We value reading for pleasure highly and work hard as a school to grow our Reading for Pleasure pedagogy.

We read to children every day. We choose these books carefully as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that reflect the children at Aylesham Primary School and our local community as well as books that open windows into other worlds and cultures.
Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. We curate these books and talk about them to entice children to read a wide range of books.
In Reception, children have access to the reading corner every day in their free flow time and the books are continually refreshed.
The school library is made available for classes to use at protected times. It must be booked via the school booking system. Our classes are named after age appropriate children’s authors and children will spend time learning about theirs and other class authors. Our class names are changed yearly to increase the number of authors our children have the potential to experience.

IMPACT

Assessment

Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

Assessment for learning is used:

daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support

Summative assessment for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (where required) is used:

termly to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the Keep-up support that they need.
by the Early Reading Lead and SLT to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

Fluency assessments measure children’s accuracy and reading speed in short one-minute assessments. They are used:

in Year 1, when children are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books to assess when children are ready to exit the programme.

in Year 2, when they are reading the Phase 5 set 3, 4 and 5 books to assess when children are ready to exit the programme.

A placement assessment is used:

with any child new to the school to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan and provide appropriate extra teaching, or with any child who is reading below age related expectations in Key Stage 2.

Statutory assessment

Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics screening check. Any child not passing the check
re-sits it in Year 2.

Ongoing assessment for Rapid Catch-up beyond Year 3

In Year 3 children who have not reached the required level on the fluency assessment and on the on-going termly assessments continue to receive daily Phonics lessons, and/or interventions dependent on their need. This may mean they are following the Rapid Catch-up programme.

Children in Years 4, 5 and 6 who have not reached the required fluency reading ability are assessed using the Rapid Catch-up initial assessment to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan appropriate teaching and are assessed using the Rapid Catch-up assessments to assess progress.

The fluency assessments measure children’s accuracy and reading speed in short one-minute assessments. They also assess when children are ready to exit the Rapid Catch-u programme, which is when they read the final fluency assessment at 90+ words per minute.

If you require any further information, please click on the link to our For Parents area which includes public links to all the videos.

Reading

Reading Intent

Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum at Aylesham Primary. We are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and we believe reading is key to academic success.

We want all children to become enthusiastic and reflective readers, who appreciate the importance of reading as a transferable skill in the wider world, and who value books as a source of pleasure and enjoyment. We believe that reading can offer children greater knowledge of the world around them and expose them to experiences and vocabulary beyond their day-to-day lives. We are committed to providing vocabulary rich reading material across the curriculum.

Reading Implementation

Phonics

A Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme (Little Wandle) is taught daily from the start of Reception, up to and including Year 3.

Whole Class Reading Lessons

Structured whole class reading is taught from Year 3 to Year 6, using rich, age-appropriate texts and following the VIPERS approach, which teaches and provides practice of the following reading skills:

Vocabulary
Infer
Predict
Explain
Retrieve
Summarise/Sequence

Shared books are vital in developing children’s vocabulary and are carefully selected by teachers for their classes to ensure maximum impact on language development. An important part of these lessons is book talk, in which children and teachers find connections between different texts, discuss their preferences and make recommendations.

Reading Across the Curriculum

We provide a text rich environment, in order to encourage a positive culture of reading throughout all classes. Core texts, which relate to the class’ current curriculum theme, form the basis of curriculum planning and reading skills are applied across all subjects.

Reading Aloud

Every teacher reads aloud to their class each day. Stories are also shared across year groups and in assemblies. The whole school participates in Paired Reading during which classes are paired with another year group to share books and read aloud to each other. Children have regular opportunities to read aloud on a one to one basis with staff, parents and volunteer reader helpers.

A Reading-Rich Environment

Every class in the school is named after a children’s author, whose books the class are introduced to. Many classes have made contact with their author, leading to ongoing communication, which children have greatly enjoyed. Our learning environments promote and encourage reading, through well-resourced and accessible book areas, reading displays and regular opportunities for book talk.

We arrange special reading events such as ‘World Book Day’ activities, storytelling sessions, local library visits and book fairs. We have our own school library, which classes are encouraged to visit weekly and which is open for children to enjoy in their free time.

Reading at Home

We understand that parents and carers play a key role in encouraging their child to develop a positive attitude to reading. Children love to listen to and tell their own stories; talking about books and sharing them together can be an enjoyable experience for all involved. For Foundation Stage and KS1, we suggest that parents read with their child for about 10 minutes each day. Each child will read in school, and then take home, a book which is 90% decodable for them. At times, children will also take home a book of their choice to share and enjoy with the adults at home and which is not fully decodable. Once a child can read fluently, reading widely remains extremely important to their development. The opportunity to talk about what they have read is vital in developing their understanding; therefore, we recommend that parents and carers continue to listen to their children read. Children also benefit hugely from listening to family members reading aloud to them.

Reading Impact

Through high-quality teaching of phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent, confident word readers by the end of KS1. Providing children with a wealth of stories, and opportunities to share them, will promote a love of reading which goes beyond the classroom.

By the time they leave primary school we aspire for children to be fluent, confident and able readers, who can access a range of texts for pleasure, participate in discussions, and communicate their opinions and responses to what they have read. These skills will allow them to unlock future learning and provide for them limitless possibilities.

Reading Progression of Skills

Writing

Writing Intent

At Aylesham Primary School, we want all children to be able to confidently communicate their knowledge, ideas and emotions through their writing and reach their full potential.

Our aims are to:

Guide and nurture each individual on their own personal journeys to becoming successful writers.
Provide exciting writing opportunities and experiences that engage and enhance all pupils.
We want all children to acquire a wide vocabulary and to be able to spell new words by effectively applying the spelling patterns and rules they learn throughout their time in primary school.
We want all children to have a solid understanding of grammar and apply it effectively to their writing.
We want them to write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences.
We believe that all children should be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their writing, and should develop a legible, individual handwriting style by the time they move to secondary school.
We want every child to have a good knowledge of phonics to springboard children to becoming fluent writers.

Writing Implementation

Our writing is centred around a bank of high-quality texts, which ensure progression from year to year. Teachers read aloud to their classes every day, which helps to bring these texts to life and ensure children are immersed in the stories. We passionately believe that reading and writing are inextricably linked therefore studying the text in both reading and writing sessions encourages children to make links and become empathetic and ambitious writers.

Our long term plan ensures that a variety of genres are progressively taught and built upon both throughout the year and throughout the school. Teachers have the freedom to tailor their writing lessons to suit the needs of the children in their class. Grammar is always taught in context; this is much more effective than stand-alone grammar lessons as children can see the language being used in a text and therefore are better able to transfer it into their own writing.

Writing is also a key focus in the wider curriculum. Children are given the opportunity to transfer and build upon their knowledge of a genre studied during English lessons and apply this learning to a piece of work in a different subject.

Writing is taught through the five stages of the writing process:

Planning
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Publishing

Within each stage, different techniques are used, including:

Opportunities to participate in drama & spoken language activities
Exploring the features of different text types and modelled examples
Vocabulary practice
Shared writing (modelled expectations)
Talk for writing approaches
Performing

Our whole class and ‘in the moment’ feedback approach enables teachers to focus children on the areas for improvement in their writing as well as their successes. Writing for authentic purposes and publishing a piece of writing enhances the children’s pride in their written work.

Writing Impact

Attainment in writing is assessed regularly throughout the year.

At the three assessment checkpoints, progress is tracked, using the PiXL writing statements which align with the National Curriculum.

Regular moderation takes place, to quality assure judgements made. These are either in house, or as part of a hub of local schools.

End of Key Stage writing: teachers will assess a selection of pieces of writing in Years 2 and Year 6, using this to inform reported Teacher Assessment judgements. Exemplification materials are used to support judgements made.

In KS2, children will be taught to self-correct, edit and improve their writing and that of others. Evidence of this can be found in books, in green pen.

Pupil voice: Response to different writing sequences is noted to help inform future teaching.

Whole school writing progression of skills

Download the Word Lists:

First 100 high frequency words list

Next 200 words list

Word List for Years 3 & 4

Word List for Years 5 & 6

For further information on the new curriculum:

Progression Guidance: Grammatical Knowledge through the Primary School

Spelling Progression Guidance: through the Primary school from Year 1

Phonics continues to be taught in Key Stage 2 where spelling rules and patterns are investigated, taught and practiced. Common ‘exception’ words are also taught. In addition to this the children use ‘Clued Spelling’ which is an individualised spelling programme driven by the children and closely monitored by the teaching staff. We have also subscribed to ‘Spellodrome’ which is an online learning tool which the children can access freely at home by logging in to the ‘Mathletics and Spellodrome’ site. This online tool enables children to practise their spellings being taught at school, whilst building points to enhance their avatar.

Lists of words are sent home each week for children to learn. These might be common ‘exception’ words, words relating to the class’ theme or lists of words that fit a particular pattern or rule.

English

Phonics

Intent

Implementation

IMPACT

Programme Overview

Capital letter Formation

How to say the Phase 3 sounds

How to say Phase 5 sounds

Reception Autumn 1 Pronunciation Guide

Reception Autumn 2 Pronunciation Guide

Parent Workshop: Phonics and Early Reading