All Saints C.E. (C) Primary School
BEGINNING BECOMING BELONGING BELIEVING
Bourne Avenue, Ranton, Stafford,
Staffordshire. ST18 9JU
Telephone: 01785 282228
Curriculum English (3)
Early Learning Reading & Phonics
Early Reading & Phonics
Early Reading & Phonics at All Saints Ranton, we use the DfE validated systematic synthetic phonics programme, ‘Bug Club Phonics’ from Pearson (Activelearn) to deliver phonics in the Early Years and KS1. We also use decodable phonics books from Bug Club, which is our reading scheme to teach reading.
Intent
We use a systematic approach to the teaching of synthetic phonics to enable children to develop secure reading and spelling skills. It is proven that high quality phonics teaching is the best way to teach children to read, ‘the EEF considers phonics to be one of the most secure and best-evidenced areas of pedagogy, recommending all schools use a systematic approach to teaching it. There is convincing evidence of the value of systematic synthetic phonics (SSP)’ (The Reading Framework –Teaching the foundations of literacy January 2022). A strong emphasis on high quality teaching of phonics can substantially reduce the number of children at risk of falling below age-related expectations for reading.
Aims:
• Deliver high-quality phonic teaching which secures the crucial skills of word recognition that, once mastered, enable children to read fluently and automatically enable them to concentrate on the meaning of the text
• To establish consistent practice, progression and continuity in the teaching and learning of phonics and spelling throughout the school
• To support pupils with targeted, differentiated phonics and spelling work, in addition to the whole class teaching, so that all children are given sufficient support to progress and experience challenge at a level at which they can succeed
• To give children word work strategies that will enable them to become fluent readers and confident writers
Beginner readers should be taught:
• Grapheme phoneme correspondence in a clearly defined sequence as outlined below: -
• to apply the highly important skills of blending (synthesising) phonemes in the order in which they occur
• to apply the skills of segmenting words into their constituent phonemes to spell
• that blending and segmenting are reversible processes
Implementation
High-quality Bug Club Phonics sessions will:
• engage children in a range of activities and experiences to develop their speaking and listening skills and phonological awareness
• provide multi-sensory activities to enliven core learning
• enable children to explore a variety of fiction and non-fiction books that are 100% decodable books
• entail fun, interactive videos and activities with games and pictures
• support children in their reading, spelling and writing skills
• follow the Bug club lesson progression as outlined below: -
Bug Club Phonics Lesson Sequence
Bug Club Phonics is structured with Phoneme Sessions and Language Sessions. This structure fully supports the daily phonics teaching sequence recommended by the Primary National Strategy in the renewed Framework. The following diagram illustrates the alignment of the Bug Club Phonics lesson structure to this teaching sequence.
Programme of Teaching Expectations:
Bug Club Phonics is taught in reception to Year 2, daily for up to 30 minutes. Children are taught in whole class/group sessions to ensure children are taught age-related phonics. Additional phonics intervention is given for children who need targeted support of earlier phonics with a member of staff trained in delivering high quality phonics, using phonics bugs games and lessons resources.
Nursery - We aim for all children to receive a strong foundation of Phase 1 teaching across all areas of provision. The children in Nursery will be immersed in a learning environment rich with Phase 1 opportunities as well as adult led sessions covering the seven key aspects as outlined in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE, 2021), Communication and language Development Matters (DfE, 2021) and The Reading Framework (DfE, 2021)*See overview below:
• Aspect 1 – General sound discrimination – environmental
The aim of this aspect is to raise children’s awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills.
• Aspect 2 – General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds
This aspect aims to develop children’s awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers.
• Aspect 3 – General sound discrimination – body percussion
The aim of this aspect is to develop children’s awareness of sounds and rhythms.
• Aspect 4 – Rhythm and rhyme
This aspect aims to develop children’s appreciation and experiences of rhythm and rhyme in speech.
• Aspect 5 – Alliteration
The focus is on initial sounds of words, with activities including I-Spy type games and matching objects which begin with the same sound.
• Aspect 6 – Voice sounds
The aim is to distinguish between different vocal sounds and to begin oral blending and segmenting.
• Aspect 7 – Oral blending and segmenting
In this aspect, the main aim is to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.
*Phase 2 will be introduced when/if children are secure within Phase 1
Reception – We aim for all children to have completed Phase 4 by the end of Reception.
Year One – We aim for all children to have completed Phase 5 by the end of Year One.
Year Two – We aim for all children to be working securely within Phase 6 by the end of Year Two.
Key Stage Two (Year 3 – Year 6) – Further phonics interventions for children who are not yet secure in Phase 6 phonics will be tailored to meeting their needs and delivered by a member of staff trained in delivering high quality phonics, using phonics bugs games and lesson resources.
High Frequency (common) words:
Our schools agreed approach to the teaching of common exception words is that children are encouraged to use their knowledge of synthetic phonics as much as possible to work out how to read unknown words aloud. The bits of a word that are 'irregular/tricky' and do not directly correspond to known grapheme/phoneme correspondence are identified and discussed as a teaching point. Within this sequence, we have identified where we expect ‘irregular/tricky’ words and decodable high frequency words to be taught. This includes the decodable high frequency (common) word list from Bug Club Phonics (which makes up the 100 high frequency word list), alongside the National Curriculum Common Exception Words.
Letter formation:
Bug Club Phonics teaches letter formation (for both lower case and capital letters) at the point of introduction of every grapheme, talking-through elements of such teaching also supports the children’s cognitive processes.
Resources:
- Children have access to phonics resources including whiteboards, pens, magnetic letters and Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence (GPC) sounds mats.
- Bug Club Phonics provides a range of digital resources that are allocated to our children post direct teaching sessions such as interactive games that allow for the application of newly taught knowledge.
- All classrooms display friezes and/or grapheme wall posters that match the Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences (GPC)and progression of the Bug Club Phonics Programme.
- All classrooms are language rich where the children have opportunities to apply their phonics knowledge.
Assessment and Tracking: Assessment:
Teachers assess children’s understanding of phonics half-termly using the assessment tools provided by the Bug Club Phonics. The data is analysed half termly to provide an overview of children’s phonics stages in classes, key stages and overall and track how children are progressing and identifying areas that need to be retaught to specific groups of children through additional intervention. At the end of the academic year, the class teacher passes on the end of year phonics data to the next class teacher stating where the children are within the Bug Club Phonics programme. This data will provide teachers with possible next steps for children to build on their personal phonics development.
Reading:
Children have opportunities to apply their phonic knowledge using phonetically decodable books from the Bug Club (Pearson) reading scheme in conjunction with Rhino Readers and Oxford Reading Tree. The sequence of reading books shows a cumulative progression in phonics knowledge (See outline below). Once the children are secure with the new content that has been taught, they are able to read the books from that set within the Bug Club phase, to develop their fluency. They may also read books from parallel schemes within school, alongside their main Bug Club text, that have been categorised in phases to support their progression, both for enjoyment and fluency.
Home Reading:
Bug Club Phonics provides a full library of eBooks that can be allocated to individual children post phonics teaching session. All decodable readers match the order of phoneme introduction. This ensures that each child can find a book at exactly the right level for them. All of our home readers are decodable and graded into colour units in accordance to the Bug Club Phonics teaching scheme where there is a carefully planned progression of books. This progression gives children plenty of opportunity to develop their reading skills and master each step while moving through the reading programme.
Children progress through the colour bands once they have achieved two goals:
1. That they are able to decode and fluently read the words playing close attention to punctuation
2. That they are able to answer retrieve explicit information from the text and are also able to infer meaning out less explicit details
There are also a variety of additional books to match each unit of the teaching programme. Following half termly assessments children are matched to the correct unit of home reader. Thus providing an opportunity for children to practise and consolidate their learning at each stage.
When the children have completed the first two units of Bug Club Phonics, they will have acquired a sufficient number of grapheme–phoneme correspondences to start reading their own books. Prior to this there is a strong focus on communication and language where parents will be given guidance for prereaders.
The Bug Club Phonics readers are designed to support children in practising and consolidating the knowledge they acquire during the whole class/group teaching sessions. Bug Club’s online reading world helps children improve core reading skills at school or home with exciting texts and fun rewards. It also enables teachers to monitor every child’s progress.
Support/Guidance for Parents/Carers:
Communication between home and school occurs through the children’s home reading logs.
Children receive 1 home reader from the reading library and 1 or more allocated eBooks from the Bug Club eBook library each week.
Remote Learning:
Each child in Reception to Year 6 has access to an online account for Phonics Bug Active Learn. Each child has a personalised homepage where they will find the eBooks they have been allocated by the teacher and motivating rewards. The online reading world ensures children can access independent reading resources anywhere at any time.
Meeting the need of the lowest 20% of children:
A phonics baselining assessment is completed during the first six weeks of the school year. This aids the identification of those children who required additional support.
Children working within the lowest 20% will be supported by the following provision:
Extra consolidation through catch-up support is provided for children who need it.
The extra support is flexible and enables slower learning children to achieve steady progress. Some children may switch between levels, so the support needed may vary. Both ongoing formative assessment and summative assessment will ensure that any skill weakness is identified promptly so that no child is left behind.
These children benefit from additional small nature group teaching who are all struggling with the same concept, for instance particular sounds. By revisiting learning and games in a smaller group setting, they develop confidence and self-esteem. This is further reinforced through discussions with parents at home.
Impact
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. Children can then focus on developing comprehension and greater fluency throughout the rest of school. Teachers and learning assistants leading phonics sessions are constantly assessing the progress of individual children within a session or series of lessons and making adaptations to teaching or interventions based on this assessment.
National Phonics Screening Test
Attainment in phonics is formally measured by the ‘Phonics Screening Test’ at the end of Year 1. All children in Year 1 will be screened using the National Assessment materials in the Summer Term. If children in Year 1 do not pass the screening test, they will be retested when they are in Year 2. This data will be submitted to the Local Authority.
Writing at All Saints
Intent
Writing is essential to learning and enjoyable in its own right. It is a developmental process and each child’s achievements are valued at every stage. Writing includes different genres for a wide variety of purposes and audiences, including the application of skills and knowledge and understanding of punctuation, grammar, spelling and handwriting. Children are enabled to articulate themselves clearly and communicate effectively with others. They also gain an understanding of how language works by looking at its patterns, structures and origins.
Impact
The impact of our teaching of writing at All Saints CE Primary School & Nursery is that high standards of literacy will be promoted and the children will develop a love of literature and creativity; pupils will be able to articulate themselves clearly through the written word.
We aim to ensure that pupils can:
- write for a range of purposes.
- use styles of writing appropriate to the purpose and the intended audience.
- have an interest in words and their meaning and a growing vocabulary.
- plan, revise and edit their own writing.
- have a good understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for written and spoken language
How do we teach writing?
Writing opportunities and learning objectives are planned and taught by the class teacher and supported by the English leader. Children have opportunities to use relevant experiences and rich texts, on which to base their writing. Activities are planned in such a way as to encourage full and active participation by all children irrespective of ability. Children are encouraged to use new technologies in a variety of ways including improvement of spelling and for the exploration of different presentation formats to suit the purpose and audience of the piece of writing.
Teachers make use of rich, stimulating texts to plan a structure of teaching and learning focused on developing age-related expected skills. This integrated strategy of combining reading and writing provides the children with the language and structures upon which to develop their own ideas and creativity.
English skills books are used from Y2 – Y6 to provide an opportunity for the children to practise and master key elements of spelling, punctuation and grammar, which are then applied to writing. This book is also used as a comprehension evidence book, where key reading objectives are identified, and work collected.
The use of lined paper will not be used for publication of writing as it hinders the use of illustrations and format of the piece; line guides are available for pupils. Project writing of all types will be published around school in wall displays and also in presentation books for personal use.
Pupils’ own illustrations and personal writing style will enhance presentations of their work. Photocopied sheets of standard illustrations are not considered appropriate when used excessively as pupils’ own work is always superior because it is unique.
Writing stages
Before pupils begin to write at school, they bring skills and knowledge of the spoken language, of written language, of story and of print from their normal day-to-day experiences.
Beginning writing
The teacher gives support by giving opportunity for free writing in role-play and having a writing table available for mark making. Skills are directly taught by staff to support letter formation activities. Opportunity is given for exploration of mark making materials such as pencils and pens. Writing displayed around the classroom show pupils that writing holds meaning and is a form of communication.
Emergent writing
The pupils begin to write recognisable words that are often phonetically correct in a structure of a story or sentence. The compositional aspects are quite advanced whereas the transcriptional skills may not be as developed. The support and collaboration of pupils and staff is the key to progress and development of writing at this stage.
Fluent Writing
Stories become more complex in structure. Pupils are initially fully involved with the process and find it difficult to abstract themselves from the writing. The writing process begins to be used but the drafting of a piece of writing can only take place when the writer is able to craft the writing from a de-centred position. Teachers’ sensitivity and professional judgement must be utilised to know when a child is ready to move towards the drafting stages of the writing process.
At All Saints, we believe that Writing has no purpose unless it is going to be read by someone. The audience may be as varied as the list below and the identification of the audience gives a focus for the children.
Writing purposes
Stories to be read Books to be published
Poems to be recited Plays to be acted
Songs to be sung Newspapers to be circulated
Letters to be posted Jokes to be told
Notes to be passed Cards to be sent
Cartons to be labelled Instruction to be followed
Designs to be made Recipes to be cooked
Messages to be exchanged Programmes to be organised
Excursions to be planned Catalogues to be compared
Memos to be distributed Entertainment guides to be enjoyed
Cribs to be hidden Announcements to be posted
Posters to be displayed Diaries to be concealed
Cross-curricular writing should be used as an integral part of projects.
Chronological writing Non chronological writing
Logs Lists
Diary accounts Recipes
Step by step guides Descriptions
Autobiography Notes (e.g. information)
Personal experience Note taking
Poems Maps
Ballads Guides/brochures
Reconstructing incident Information leaflets
Newsroom summation Public notices e.g. No Smoking
Reporting (e.g. science investigation) Labels
Recipe method Diagram
Stories Account
Instructions Letter
Directions Horoscope
Comic strip Poems
Play scripts Advert
Post cards
Presenting a point of view
Newspaper
Plans
All Saints Learning Journeys
In order for our children to be fully involved in their own personal learning journey, we make use of our ‘Writing Learning Journeys’ so that the children are able to look at their progress and understand that their learning is part of a bigger picture. If you would like a copy of your child’s learning journey, please contact school.
Reading at All Saints
Reading is an essential life skill that provides access to the experiences of people from different cultures and times. Children must acquire good reading skills in order to access the information that will support their development in all curriculum areas. In addition to this, we aim to promote a life-long love of reading in all of our pupils.
Intent
Our overarching aim for reading at All Saints CE Primary School and Nursery is to promote high standards and to develop a love of literature in our pupils through widespread reading for enjoyment.
We intend that pupils will be able to:
• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
• appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
How do we teach reading?
Our school identifies two important phases in reading development: learning to read and reading to learn. Teaching strategies employed by staff recognise children’s needs in each phase.
• Positive attitudes to reading are fostered through carefully designed learning activities and classroom provision. The need for children to enjoy reading and actively choose to read for different purposes informs this provision.
• Teachers use a balanced approach. Activities promote children’s abilities to decode written language at word and sentence level, and to search for meaning in the text. These activities also reflect the need for children to engage imaginatively with texts, empathise with characters and develop their specific interests in the world around them through their reading.
• A variety of teaching strategies are employed to teach reading both inside and outside the main English lesson.
• Teaching is embedded within meaningful contexts. Teachers teach children about reading by providing access to a wide range of high-quality narrative and non-narrative texts.
• Banded books are used in home-school reading and individual reading for children still mastering decoding skills. These texts are supplemented by a broader range of graded reading materials (such as those found in our reading cabin and in class choice boxes) that provide access to additional text lay-outs and styles of writing.
Phonics
Whilst some reading strategies are used more often to teach emergent reading (such as phonics), our school recognises that learners may require a blend of different strategies in order for children to progress.
- The school uses synthetic phonics to teach reading; materials from Letters & Sounds are used. Letters and Sounds is supplemented by songs and actions from Jolly Phonics and also Phonics Bug.
- These materials provide a rigorous, systematic framework in which to teach children to hear the 44 English speech sounds, blend them together into words and segment words into sounds for writing.
- Teachers follow the Letters and Sounds handbook guidance carefully to organise the teaching sessions.
- Phonics is taught in ability groups, broadly aligned to the different phases achieved by the pupils. It is planned for weekly using the Letters & Sounds lesson structure.
| Phonics Milestones | Nursery | Reception | Year 1 |
|
Autumn (Dec) |
Phase 1 | Lower / Middle Phase 3 |
Phase 4 re-cap Lower Phase 5
|
|
Spring (April) |
Phase 2 | Upper Phase 3 | Middle Phase 5 |
|
Summer (June) |
Upper Phase 2 | Phase 4 | Upper Phase 5 |
Coding for Reading Books
Reading books have a standard code used throughout the school. The books are graded by difficulty levels known as book bands. Each book is colour coded with a sticker at a differentiated level of ability. The chart below gives an indication of the range of book band levels at which most children will be reading as they progress through the school.
| Book band colour | REC | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
| Lilac | * | ||||||
| Pink | * | ||||||
| Red | * | * | |||||
| Yellow | * | * | |||||
| Blue | * | * | |||||
| Green | * | * | |||||
| Orange | * | * | |||||
| Turquoise | * | ||||||
| Purple | * | * | |||||
| Gold | * | * | |||||
| White | * | * | |||||
| Lime | * | * | * | ||||
| Brown | * | * | * | ||||
| Grey | * | * | * | * | |||
| Dark Blue | * | * | * | ||||
| Burgundy | * | * | |||||
| Black | * |
Reading Learning Journeys
In order for our children to be fully involved in their own personal learning journey, we make use of our ‘Reading Learning Journeys’ so that the children are able to look at their progress and understand that their learning is part of a bigger picture. If you would like a copy of your child’s learning journey, please contact school.
"We are committed to creating a safe, welcoming, stimulating and challenging environment in which all the children develop a love of learning and strive to reach their full potential within a Christian caring community where individuals are respected and valued."
Contact Us
Contact the office on
- Tel.: 01785 282228
- Email: office@allsaints-ranton.staffs.sch.uk
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