Early Reading/Phonics

Early Reading – What does it look like at Clapgate?

At Clapgate we are eager to in-still a love of reading in children from a young age. This is why early reading is so important. Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we want to put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible. We want your child to love reading and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.

As part of our Early Years curriculum we have carefully planned out which key stories and poems our children will know and love by the time they leave Reception. Each half term the children in the early years are exposed to a selection of books which they read continuously over the half term. This repetition allows for our children to understand the story structures, characters, vocabulary and key themes as well as learning to love well-known children’s stories.  In addition to this, we have also carefully planned out which nursery rhymes and songs each year group will learn. Please see the tables below.

During their time in EYFS children will have the opportunity to explore our amazing library and read a vast range of books. In EYFS we use Helicopter Stories to encourage the children to become storytellers and to develop their levels of oracy. 

Nursery Key Texts

Reception Key Texts

Read, Write, Inc Phonics

As a school we have implemented a phonics and reading program called Read, Write, Inc.

Nursery

Our early reading journey begins in Nursery where children share daily stories with adults and have access to a wide range of stories that they can read comfortably in our welcoming and cosy reading area. In Nursery, we hope for the children to develop a love of reading and have a motivation to read, however, for children to learn to read they first need to develop a foundation of pre- reading skills. This includes communication and language, an understanding that print carries meaning and phonological awareness. 

The children are involved in one to two adult directed phonics sessions each week. During these sessions, the children are developing their phonological awareness through discriminating between general sounds in the environment. This encourages the children to develop their listening skills so they can compare the different sounds they hear. We will do this by going on listening walks, using everyday objects to make sounds, and using recorded sounds for the children to listen to. We will also use instruments for the children to replicate different sounds that they hear which will develop their ability to listen for different letter sounds when they begin to read. Not forgetting to use our bodies as an instrument to teach the children about sound and rhythm, this may be done through singing songs like ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ and tapping our knees, clapping our hands or stamping our feet. We also use our speech to develop rhythm and rhyme, breaking words down into syllabus and reading rhyming stories. Although the children will be having direct teaching sessions to develop their phonological awareness it will also be incorporated into their play and their everyday routine and environment. 

Reception and Key Stage One

Once children enter Reception they begin their Read Write Inc journey which tends to run until the Easter of Year 2. Children have daily phonics lessons which are streamed based on their half-termly assessments. In these lessons, the children learn to read and write a new letter sound each day. There is also time for the children to practise their spelling, word reading,  reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. 

The children are asked to bring their book bags into school on a Thursday morning so that their reading books can be changed and sent home again on a Friday afternoon.  Each child takes home one decodable phonics book, closely matched to their phonics ability, and a book that facilitates reading for pleasure. Our children are encouraged to read their school reading book at least three times across the week to help improve their confidence, fluency, and comprehension.  Our parents also have access to Oxford Owl, where they can read the exact phonics book that their child has been reading in school during their phonics lessons that week. There is also a short quiz to support this learning at home.

Parent Information

How will my child be taught to read?

We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Foundation Stage and this continues into KS1. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.

What can I do to help? Is there anything that I shouldn’t do?

Help your child to sound out the letters in words and then ‘point and sweep’ the sounds together to make a whole word. Try not to refer to the letters by their letter name. Help your child to focus on the ‘pure’ sounds. You can hear how to say the sounds correctly by searching on YouTube for ‘Read Write Inc. Phonemes Pronunciation Guide’. Your child will learn their letter sounds in a certain order which are set out below.

We know parents and carers are very busy people. But if you can find time to read to your child as much as possible, it helps him or her to learn about books and stories. They also learn new words and what they mean. Show that you are interested in reading yourself and talk about reading as a family. You can find out about good stories to read to your child here: http://www.ruthmiskintraining.com/teacher-support/17/index.htm 

RWI-SOUNDS-SET-1-3Download

Let’s help Year 1 pass their phonics!

Use these resources to learn all of the sounds in sets 1, 2 and 3.

Phonics games can help with reading and spelling.

Alien words are important for the year 1 phonics check (try playing Obb and Bob).

Phonics-Home-Learning-Resource-PackDownload
Set-1-home-learningDownload
Set-2-home-learningDownload
Set-3-home-learningDownload
School Address:

Clapgate Primary School
10 Cranmore Drive
Belle Isle
Leeds
LS10 4AW

School Contacts:

Headteacher: Mrs Singleton
Deputy Headteacher: Miss Taylor
SENDCO: Mrs Woodhouse
Office: Mrs Austin, Miss Johnson, Mrs Belt
Chair of Governors: Mr Bache

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Tel: 0113 271 6700
Email: clapgate@clapgateprimaryschool.org

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