Reading Schemes
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. Throughout the school, a love for reading is nurtured through the use of good quality texts which are used to develop language and writing skills, alongside reading skills. .
In Key Stage 1 we encourage variety, and try to cater for individual tastes, by using a range of reading schemes including:
- Phonics Bug
- Oxford Reading Tree
- My first phonics
- Jelly and Bean
- Fun with phonics
- Project-X
Phonics Scheme
We teach Phonics using Read Write Inc.. Developed by Ruth Miskin, it provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. It is used by more than a quarter of the UK’s primary schools and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.
Each Read Write Inc. programme meets the higher expectations of the National Curriculum and uses effective assessment to accelerate every child’s progress.
In Reception the children are introduced to the phonemes (letter sounds) and graphemes (letter shapes) on a daily basis. The children progress through sets of sounds known as the simple speed sounds.
In Year 1 and Year 2 children begin to look at the complex speed sounds and the alternative ways to spell the sounds. All children take part in the National Phonics Screening at the end of Year 1. In Year 1 children have daily phonics lessons and in Year 2 children have daily spelling lessons which help them learn to read, blend and segment words allowing them to become confident, fluent readers and writers.
To support parents with the pronunciation of the letter sounds that children learn in school, please take a look at the short video clip: Letter Sounds (YouTube)
Further parent support can be found at http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/
A short clip about the National Phonic Screen can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhXUW_v-1s
Parents may find this website useful (free resources available): http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/