Phonics and Early Reading

Reading at our school.

At Funtington Primary School, we passionately believe learning to read is a fundamental skill for life. We know that once children have mastered the basic mechanics of reading and begin to read fluently, it can open the door to so many exciting and different learning opportunities across the curriculum.

Empowering and encouraging children to read for pleasure is our ultimate goal.

The importance of Phonics in Early Reading.

Phonics is an essential component of the teaching of early reading and we have a structured approach to both the teaching of phonics and reading throughout the school.

Phonics is taught systematically across the school using the DFE approved Read, Write Inc scheme.

Formative phonics assessments are carried out each half term to check children’s phonic knowledge and progress within the scheme. This helps us to inform next steps for teaching and inform groupings for phonics teaching.

The aim of Read, Write Inc is that children are confident to complete the phonics scheme either at the end of the Summer term in year 1 or by the first half of the Autumn term of Year 2.

Where children are struggling to make progress, our assessments help to inform gaps in learning and ensure that intervention is targeted to support children to secure their phonics knowledge at the appropriate level.

This includes children in KS2 who are at this early reading phase and who still need to secure their phonics knowledge in order to learn to read more fluently.

Progression in Early Reading.

From Reception we use phonically decodable books from the Read, Write Inc scheme, to ensure that children are learning to read books at the appropriate level. By re-reading and practicing these books in class and at home, children gain confidence, fluency and will begin to put some words to memory, such as high frequency words and tricky ‘red’ word which are not decodable.

In year 1, children will continue to read levelled decodable books in small guided groups.

By year 2, children move onto whole class guided sessions with more of a focus on building comprehension skills.

These children will also begin Read, Write Inc spellings in preparation for KS2, where the teaching of spellings takes over from direct phonics teaching.

Early Reading and Phonics

Reading Eggs

Across the school we use an online App called Reading Eggs to supplement your child’s reading opportunities. It is unique to your child and they receive their own personal log in. On entry to school they are assessed via a placement test. The App will then place them on the appropriate reading egg level. The app constantly assesses how your child is progressing through games and mini quizzes and will continue to place your child at the appropriate ‘map’ level. As children grow more proficient in reading they can access a library of e-books and more complex comprehension activities to support practicing a range of reading skills.

The more they practice the more maps they will unlock. Your child may have opportunities to practice on Reading Eggs at school, but their main access to this will be at home. Please ask the office if you need a replacement log in.

Fostering a love of Reading from the start.

We supplement phonics and the key skills or ‘mechanics’ of reading by reading a wide range of texts to the children.

We plan these texts carefully to ensure children have a varied reading ‘diet’ of good quality texts. We use both fiction and non-fiction texts to develop themes, vocabulary, or just offer up wonderful worlds of information, pattern, rhyme or imaginative stories to help inspire our youngest readers and writers.

In EYFS daily story times have a strong focus on re-reading well known picture books and traditional tales to embed essential story vocabulary and provide key opportunities to develop story telling skills by encouraging children to join in, to anticipate phrases or events and to talk about characters and settings. All key components to growing a lifelong love of books and reading.

To find out more about phonics and early reading please use the tab buttons below to take you to helpful web pages and links: