How we teach our children to read
How we teach your child to read
At Laceyfields Academy, we intend to ensure all children become confident, independent readers, who enjoy sharing books with enthusiasm. We aim to nurture and develop a love for reading through daily story times, weekly library sessions, in addition to regular reading practice lessons and teaching sessions around a key text.
Through direct phonic teaching from Early Years to Year 2, we aim to build and develop children’s growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, allowing them to master phonics to read and spell, as they move through school. Staff are knowledgeable in phonic teaching and encourage children to use these skills across the curriculum as well as directly during phonics lessons.
At Laceyfields, we have a strong focus on vocabulary and language development, regularly introducing children to new vocabulary and developing their knowledge to support understanding when reading new texts.
We recognise the importance of reading and enabling all children to have equal opportunities to become successful. We believe that every child can become a fluent reader with an excellent understanding of what they have read, allowing them to access reading across the wider curriculum and become lifelong learners.
We aim to provide opportunities to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually through our diverse range of books.
We focus on these three areas of reading: Reading for Pleasure (Library book choices, daily story time in class), Reading to Learn (Key texts for comprehension and learning in English lessons) and Learning to Read (phonics decodable books).
Phonics and Early Reading in Nursery
Nursery is the foundation for developing early reading and phonic skills. Here there is a strong focus on sharing high quality texts daily. There is a strong emphasis on learning nursery rhymes and songs and listening activities to support children in differentiating between sounds.
Nursery follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised Foundation programme and teach daily phonics activities to practise focussed listening and attention as well as oral blending practise. Children learn new vocabulary through high quality texts and are encouraged to use new vocabulary through adult-led and child-initiated activities.
Phonics and Early Reading in Reception to Year 2
We continue to follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised Phonics programme from Early Years to Year 2. This is a systematic and structured phonics programme providing children with the key skills to master phonic strategies, enabling children to decode and segment unfamiliar words for reading and writing.
All children engage in daily phonics lessons and regular reading practice lessons.
In Reception, children start to learn graphemes to read and spell words using phase 2 and 3 GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence) and words with adjacent consonants with fluency and accuracy. Children will also engage in oral blending games to continue developing their listening and attention skills. Children practise their reading skills through picture books to begin with and then move to phonically decodable books matched to their reading ability.
In Key Stage 1, we teach a daily 30 minute phonics lesson, continuing to build on children’s knowledge of GPCs and follow the progression outlined in the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, re-visiting phase 4 and beginning to teach phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy. Children continue to practise reading through phonically decodable reading books matched to their ability.
We teach reading practice lessons two to three times a week. These sessions are taught by a fully trained adult in small groups and we use decodable books that are matched to children’s phonics knowledge to allow children to practise their reading skills, develop their automaticity and confidence in reading. The reading sessions are monitored by the teacher, who will rotate around the groups to work with every child.
In Key Stage 1, we teach a daily 30 minute phonics lesson, continuing to build on children’s knowledge of GPCs and follow the progression outlined in the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme, re-visiting phase 4 and beginning to teach phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy. Children continue to practise reading through phonically decodable reading books matched to their ability.
We teach reading practice lessons two to three times a week. These sessions are taught by a fully trained adult in small groups and we use decodable books that are matched to children’s phonics knowledge to allow children to practise their reading skills, develop their automaticity and confidence in reading. The reading sessions are monitored by the teacher, who will rotate around the groups to work with every child.
The reading sessions have three clear focuses:
- Decoding: Apply knowledge of GPCs
- Prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
- Comprehension: Teaching children to understand the text
These reading practice sessions start in Reception, once children are blending confidently and continue into Year 1. In Year 2, children who still require practise reading with fully decodable books, continue taking part in these reading practice sessions. However, children who are at age related, can move from Little Wandle fully decodable books to colour banded books whilst they transition to focus reading lessons with key texts/extracts.
We regularly assess children each half term following new learning and use this data to identify children at risk of falling behind or any gaps in their phonics knowledge. This allows us to track children closely and regularly. Children who have been identified as requiring additional practice, are placed into daily keep up groups to practise either grapheme phoneme correspondence or blending practise. Children who have been identified as significantly below age related expectations in Year 2, will access the Little Wandle 'Rapid Catch up' programme.
These sessions match the structure of class teaching and use the same steps and mantras to reduce cognitive overload but are in smaller steps with more repetition.
Use the links below to watch videos that show how we teach your child to read.