Lift St Helen's

Early Reading

Intent

We use the Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics programme to support the progression towards fluency reading and writing for every child. Children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can further develop their skills in comprehension, spelling and vocabulary. Children learn a simple and then complex alphabetic code. Reading books are matched appropriately (to the sound’s children are learning and already know) and progress cumulatively.

Phonics is essential for children to succeed so the effective teaching of phonics is of the highest priority to St Helen’s!

Implementation

Phonics is taught 5 x a week to EYFS, Y1 and Y2 until they have mastered the programme.
Phonics ‘keep up’ sessions are taught daily to Y3 and Y4 students who are falling behind with their decoding and fluency skills to ensure they are provided opportunities to make accelerated progress.
FreshStart is taught to Y5 and Y6 students who are falling behind with their decoding and fluency skills to ensure they are provided opportunities to make accelerated progress.
In EYFS, continuous provision reflects the progression through the phonics programme to ensure children are using and developing taught skills.
Children are grouped according to their reading progress.
Children who are falling behind the expected rate of progress are quickly identified and placed on a fast track intervention programme to allow them to keep up. The interventions are targeted to individual needs to ensure children catch up as quickly as possible. This process is closely monitored by our early reading/phonics lead.
A home reading system is in place to consolidate current learning with the matched RWI reading book and a free choice pleasure for reading book.
Adults read stories daily to promote a love of reading, model story reading and expose children to a wide range of texts.
Children are taught to:
- Decode letter/sounds correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
- Read tricky words (red words) on sight
- Understand what they have read
- Read aloud with fluency and expression
- Write confidently, with a focus on vocabulary and grammar
- Spell quickly and easily by segmenting sounds in words
- Acquire good handwriting

Impact

Through the effective teaching and monitoring of systematic phonics, our priority is for children to become fluent readers by the end of KS1. Children will become confident readers by reading books closely matched to their phonics knowledge. The programme will provide children the skills needed to focus on their fluency and comprehension throughout school. Exposing children to phonics early means that children become confident readers and writers early. The impact of our effective phonics provision ensures we are providing children with all the skills they need to succeed throughout their education and lives.

Assessment

Micro level - Formative assessment (Task by task)

Ongoing AFL during lessons through:

- Eliciting information through questioning and dialogue

- Providing feedback with clear direction on how to improve

- Helping children to understand how to become successful (criteria)

- Modelling of correct pronunciation of sounds

- Modelling of correct spelling

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Meso level - Lesson by lesson assessment

- Recap and recall of previous sound knowledge and spelling

- Sounds are retaught the next lesson if not secure to ensure learning is consolidated

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Macro level - End of unit

Read Write Inc termly assessments to assess and check progress. This allows for pupils to be placed into the correct group in the programme for their next steps developmentally.

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Mega level - Standardised test

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Year 2 Phonics Screening Check (resit)

Reading

Intent

At St Helen’s, we promote a love of reading which helps our pupils explore a range of themes, embrace new learning opportunities and helps enhance emotional well-being. At St Helen’s we believe that reading is an essential life skill and we are committed to enabling our children to become lifelong readers. The skill of reading enables children to develop and embed their learning across the wider curriculum. We have high expectations of all children and we encourage children to become confident and fluent readers.

Implementation

Teachers teach reading or phonics 5 x per week
Reading is embedded and reinforced in the wider curriculum
Decoding, fluency and comprehension skills are embedded throughout
1-1 reading slots are embedded throughout the day
Handwriting and spelling lessons (related to age related expectations) to be delivered 5x a week.
Classrooms will be vocabulary rich
RAG readers to be read with everyday to promote fluency with weaker readers - every child will be listened to over a fortnightly period by an adult
Reading corners should be inviting to the pupils and effectively display books
Teachers should model reading and have a daily story time to promote reading for pleasure
Home readers should be sent home everyday to encourage pupils to read at home daily
Classes have access the library to promote reading for pleasure or choice reading
Baseline assessments of reading ages for ALL children and termly assessments for children working below age related expectations
Fast Track interventions for children to keep up in phonics or to improve fluency / comprehension in reading

Impact‍

Pupils will become fluent readers and this will be evidenced through listening to children read. Teachers will challenge misconceptions both verbally and written through interactive marking.
NGRT assessments, RWI assessments and summative assessments will be used to assess reading progress.
Children will confidently read appropriate but challenging texts for their reading level and the text will be correctly matched
Pupils will know how to utilise reading environments and will develop a reading voice (opinions and preferences)
Pupils will enjoy reading and be able to articulate their opinions and preferences
Pupils will access reading in the wider curriculum more confidently

Assessment

Micro level - Formative assessment (Task by task)

Ongoing AFL during lessons through:

- Eliciting information through questioning and dialogue

- Providing feedback with clear direction on how to improve

- Helping children to understand how to become successful (criteria)

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Meso level - Lesson by lesson assessment

- Knowledge checks at the start of the lesson

- ‘Do now’ retrieval quizzes at the start of every lesson to recall key content and vocabulary from previous lesson

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Macro level - End of unit

-RWI termly assessments

-FreshStart termly assessments

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Mega level - Standardised test

-NGRT Tests - Baseline and end of the year for ALL children. Children reading below their chronological reading age are re-tested in the Spring term to check progress and next steps to enable them to keep up

-Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

-Year 6 Reading SATS Test

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All assessment strategies focus on both the decoding and comprehension elements of reading.

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St Helen's Reading River