Our vision

At Laceyfields Academy, we aim to help our children become confident, independent readers, who enjoy sharing books with enthusiasm.  We believe all children can become fluent readers, who understand and reflect on their reading.  We aim to nurture children’s love for reading and provide children with lifelong reading skills to support their learning in the wider curriculum and beyond.

At Laceyfields Academy, we teach the requirements as set out in the 2014 National Curriculum for all curriculum areas and the 2021 Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme approved by the DfE to teach phonics and early reading.  We follow the progression outlined in the programme from Early Years to Year 2.

Intent

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.

Implementation

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 skills. 

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. Following Little Wandle, children in Year 2 move on to a daily whole class reading and spelling lessons. 

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 continue to take part in reading practice sessions for Autumn term 1. In Autumn term 2, children who have reached age related expectations and are reading fluently move from Little Wandle fully decodable books to reading a broad range of age appropriate class texts. In addition to this, Year 2 children will have daily reading and spelling lessons. Children who are not yet reading fluently, continue to take part in reading practice lessons in addition to reading and spelling lessons and continue to take home a fully decodable book. 

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.

RED TED 

(Please see Parents tab too)

RED TED stands for Read Every Day, Talk Every Day. 

Research from the National Literacy Trust (2018) suggests children who read daily are more likely to read above the level expected for their age compared with their peers, who don’t read daily.

We want to give every child the opportunity to become excellent readers who reach or exceed age related expectations.  Therefore we encourage our children to take part in our RED TED challenge, where children can receive rewards for home reading.

Every child in Reception receives their first RED TED card and once they have completed this card reading 25 books, they receive their first reward, which is a Red Ted bear.  Children can take this bear home and read with their Red Ted bear.  Following this, for every further 25 reads there are more rewards children can receive.  These rewards are celebrated in class in Reception and during a Celebration assembly in Key Stage 1.

Home Reading

Following our reading practice lessons, children will bring their decodable book home at the end of each week to further practise at home and read to parents/carers.

Children will also take part in a Library session every week from Nursery to Year 2, where children will have the opportunity to choose a book to take home.

Impact

The impact of Early Reading at Laceyfields Academy is evident through our love for reading and engaging reading environments.

Summative phonics assessments are regularly used at the end of each half term, to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.  This assessment data is used by all staff to plan for 'Keep up' sessions for children at risk of falling behind.  Senior leaders and the reading leader are able to access the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to scrutinise data and be aware of gaps within different groups.

Any children who have been identified as SEND are able to access to Little Wandle SEN programme, which allows for more practise and at a slower place to support their learning.  In addition to this, any children who have been identified as significantly behind in Year 2, can access a 'Rapid Catch up' Programme to help them catch up.

Any new children to our school can be assessed through a placement assessment tool to identify current phonic knowledge and any gaps.  This data is then used to plan for follow up teaching.

Formative assessments are completed through weekly review lessons and regular assessment for learning opportunities during phonic lessons and across the wider curriculum.  Any gaps are assessed and addressed immediately to secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.

Statutory Assessment

Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening check (PSC). Any child not meeting the expected standard re-sits the check in Year 2.

We aim for our impact to be that the majority of children are able to reach age related expectations by the end of Year 2.

Useful Websites