Early Reading
At Hart Primary school we strive to ensure that all children become successful, fluent readers by the end of key stage one and believe this is achievable through a combination of strong, high quality, discrete systematic phonics teaching combined with a whole language approach that promotes a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ culture. Being able to read is the most important skill children will learn during their early schooling and has far-reaching implications for lifelong learning and well-being.
The independent review of early reading conducted by Jim Rose confirmed that ‘high quality phonic work’ should be the prime means for teaching children how to read and spell words. The review also highlighted the importance of developing from the earliest stages children’s speaking and listening skills, ensuring that beginner readers are ready to get off to a good start in phonic work. Such work should be set within a broad and rich language curriculum. This approach is in alignment with our belief that we first ‘learn to read’ and then ‘read to learn’ and is reflected in our Early Reading Policy.
We teach early reading using a discrete, systematic synthetic phonic approach using the Letters and Sounds guidance across foundation stage and key stage one – this is supported by teachers using mnemonics and actions to support children’s learning of the grapheme and phoneme correspondences from Read, Write, Inc. and Jolly Phonics. Alongside this guidance we use a range of phonically decodable texts that are well matched to the current reading stage of each child.
We believe the importance of getting children off to a good start with reading cannot be overstated. The teaching of Early Reading starts from Nursery here at Hart. The activities in Phase One that exemplify this approach are set out in seven aspects as described in our Early Reading Policy.
We understand that key features of a rich curriculum which are essential to Phase One and beyond are the range and depth of language experienced by the children. We exploit the power of story, rhyme (including ‘nursery rhyme of the week’), drama and song to fire children’s imagination and interest, thus encouraging them to use language copiously.
During the teaching of Phase 1 our children receive story sacks to share at home which include quality stories, non-fiction books and resources to support their development of the love of reading, language and fire their imagination and interest.
All children are monitored and tracked using the school tracking sheets for ‘knowledge of the code and skills assessment’ and common exception word assessment. If a child is not on track to meet the half termly expectations, personalised additional session and strategies are provided as well as continuing the systematic daily phonics sessions. Resulting in quality, informed progression bespoke to learner needs and abilities.
Children who have not met expectations in their phonics screening throughout Key Stage One are monitored and personalised provision is provided for them to be able to access an alternative reading programme such as RWI.
For further information please see our Early Reading Policy.
