Reading and Phonics
How Phonics and Early Reading is Taught at Brierley
At Brierley we recognise the importance of reading. We understand that a child’s journey to becoming a reader begins with a systematic approach to the teaching of phonics where the sounds of the English language are taught in a specific order. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme which starts with foundations for phonics in Nursery where children are taught how to tune in to different sounds and repeat patterns. In Reception and Year 1, our children work through the phonics phases and are taught a new sound each day with the fifth day of each week focusing on recapping and reviewing. Additional phonics teaching takes place daily for any children who need extra practise. The teaching of phonics continues beyond Year 1 wherever children still need this or when a child joins our school and is not yet a reader.
In addition to the daily phonics lessons, children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 work in small focus reading groups where they work with an adult to discuss and read a book which is a little above what they are able to read independently. During these sessions (which run Monday-Thursday), children practise reading sounds, tricky words and specific vocabulary for the book. They engage in high quality book talk and practise reading and re-reading to develop their skills of being able to read with automaticity and prosody. During the final session of the week, each child completes an independent written task linked to the book. These groups are also put in place further up the school for children who are working at a phonics level.
All staff at Brierley are trained in Little Wandle and are able to deliver quality group or 1:1 read sessions with children. This is done with consistency across school, regardless of which year group children are in, to ensure we support each and every child in becoming a reader as early as possible.
In addition to the phonics read sessions, children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have whole class reading sessions where they read, discuss and answer questions about texts which are pitched at age expectations rather than ability. Where appropriate, children may access texts which are above their age for challenge.
How You Can Support at Home
If your child is in Reception or Year 1, your child’s teacher will send home the sounds and words which they have focused on throughout the week. Practising these sounds with your child at home is a fantastic way to support their learning. It is also extremely important that your child – whichever year group they are in – reads at home on a regular basis. There is more information about reading books in the ‘Reading Books and Reading at Home’ section below.
If your child has joined our school after Reception, we will assess their understanding of phonics and reading and provide you with guidance on how you can help at home.
Each year we offer workshops for parents and carers: one for Nursery and Reception parents which focuses on phonics, early reading and communication and language and one for Year 1 parents which focuses on phonics and reading. The Year 1 workshop also explains the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check – a statutory check which all children are required to complete in Year 1 and again in Year 2 if they did not pass first time.
Year 1 Phonics Screening Check Explained
The following links can be used to help support your child with phonics at home.
For parents | Letters and Sounds
The following videos are free to access and are for your child to listen to and join in with. There is a video to match what our children are being taught each day in Reception and Year 1. You can help by recapping what your child will already have been taught so far in class.
Letters and Sounds for Home and School - YouTube
It is important that we pronounce the sounds of the English language correctly to help your child learn to read. The following video demonstrates how to pronounce the pure sounds.
Phonics: How to pronounce pure sounds | Oxford Owl
The following website is a fun and interactive way for your child to practise applying their phonics skills.
Phonics Games for the Classroom and Home - Phonics Bloom
Reading Books and Reading at Home
Our reading books are colour banded and each child is given books which are carefully matched to their phonics knowledge, providing them with the opportunity to practise the sounds and words they have been taught. Reading at home is hugely important and finding the time to read for just 5 – 10 minutes each night will go a long way in supporting your child to make progress in reading. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have reading diaries. Further up the school, teachers will also provide children with reading diaries if they are still reading phonics books or if your child is struggling with reading. If your child has a diary, please sign this on a regular basis and use it to inform your child’s teacher of what they have read and of any comments you may think are useful regarding your child’s reading.
Children who no longer have reading diaries are still required to read on a daily basis at home. Staff keep a log of what books your child reads and monitor their understanding of these books through regular conversations in class. Reading books are changed on a weekly basis (usually Thursdays) and additional books are given out for children who read on a regular basis. Your child may also bring home books they have chosen from the library or a ‘share book’. These books are often ones which your child is unable to read independently but would benefit from sharing with an adult. Children in Nursery and Reception take home a different share book each week which includes suggested talking points and activities at home. It is important to note that the books and texts which your child reads in school are more challenging than those which they take home as teachers work with them to support them in accessing the text.
Once a child is secure in phonics, they continue to move through the banded books, accessing a wide range of quality texts appropriate for their age. We assess children on their reading level on a regular basis and ensure that they are reading books which are of sufficient challenge. These assessments are based on a number of skills including accuracy, fluency, pace and comprehension (including providing written responses to questions). Once your child has finished working through the book bands, they become a ‘free reader’. Staff will then support your child in choosing books of a wide range of genres and authors and also of sufficient challenge.
The following websites will help support your child’s reading at home:
Read Theory is a website where your child can create a free account and access a range of texts to read and answer questions about:
ReadTheory | Free Reading Comprehension Practice for Students and Teachers
A free e-library of books:
Free eBook library – practise reading with phonics eBooks - Oxford Owl
A site to listen to stories being read out loud:
How Reading is Taught at Brierley
Our main focus is for our children to have the skills necessary in order to be able to read books as soon as possible and to do so with automaticity, fluency and expression. This is something which is specifically taught in reading lessons and is also encouraged to be practised at home through daily reading with an adult. It is important that our children have a good understanding of what they are reading and the vocabulary they come across in books.
Reading skills are taught through the following:
-Phonics read group sessions
-Whole class reading lessons
-Reading within English lessons
Phonics read group sessions as described in the ‘How Phonics and Early Reading is Taught at Brierley’ section above.
Whole class reading lessons these take place in Nursery all the way up to Year 6. In Nursery, Reception and Year 1, the children focus on a range of quality texts including traditional tales. In years 2 – 6 we use the Grammarsaurus Comprehension Crusher Scheme which is adapted to suit the needs of the children in each class. These lessons use high quality texts which are support various parts of the curriculum, including Science, geography and history. These lessons follow the same structure in each year group:
| Lesson 1 | Lessons 2/3/4/5 | Lesson 6 |
|
Activating prior knowledge/ context Tiered vocabulary is specifically taught with the use of visuals to support understanding. Children identify and highlight these words in their copy of the text. A fluency grid is used to specifically teach and practise vocabulary. The first read of the text takes place with the teacher modelling fluency and contiguous reading. A five finger summary is used to summarise the text. |
Orally recap the five-finger summary I read, you read vocab I read, you read fluency grid Fluency grid recap Echo read (where children echo the teacher’s reading Timed read (where children aim to read the same part of the text as the teacher in the same amount of time) Comprehension: Following our school ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach, questions are completed each day based on the text. |
Children apply the skills they have learnt this week by independently completing questions based on an unseen text. |
Reading Within English Lessons Reading takes place in 3 – 4 of the English lessons each week and is based on whichever the focus text is for the current unit of writing. The purpose of these lessons is to practise reading skills, support writing and help children to make links between impact on the reader and thinking as an author. This reading involves a mixture of paired popcorn reading and choral reading along with written responses to questions which are either recorded by the teacher or by the children.
At Brierley, we have created our own reading spine where quality texts - including classics, modern, traditional and poetry – have been allocated to each year group. This ensures that during their journey through the school, each child has the opportunity to read and enjoy a wealth of quality texts of a range of genres and authors.
You can view our reading spines on the English long term plans in the files at the bottom of this page.
We have also created our own progression in reading document which helps to explain how the teaching of reading skills develop throughout the year groups. This can also be viewed in the files at the bottom of this page.
Reading for Pleasure
Not only do we want our children to be readers but we are also passionate about instilling a love of reading in each and every one of our children at Brierley. This is modelled by the teachers during daily ‘drop-and-read’ sessions, where teachers read a book to the children for enjoyment and engage the children in book talk linked to what has been read. Each term, Years 1 to 6 read a chapter book which then becomes the focus of a unit of writing. These books are often classic texts and are mapped out in our English long-term plans. In addition to these texts, teachers will also carefully choose books which reflect the interests of the children within their class.
All of our classrooms feature bright, stimulating and inviting book corners for children to sit and read in and we regularly invest in high quality texts for the children. In our book corners you will often find children’s recommendations and reviews of their favourite books. We also have our author focus strategy where we have strategically planned to ensure that by the time children leave us in Year 6 they have read many books by significant authors. Our class authors are as follows: Julia Donaldson (EYFS), Alan Ahlberg (Year 1), Mini Grey (Year 2), Tom Fletcher (Year 3), M G Leonard (Year 4), Onjali Rauf (Year 5) and Philip Pullman (Year 6).
At Brierley we believe that all reading is good reading and we promote the use of our local library as much as possible. We have formed a strong link with our local library and all classes visit Crewe Library on a termly basis (if not more) whilst our Nursery and Reception classes enjoy visits from the Library into school.
We promote a love of reading in as many ways as possible. We have regular reading competitions within school which are celebrated in whole school assemblies, and we take part in World Book Day each year where everyone, including staff, comes to school dressed as their favourite book character for the day.
