Phonics  Statement

Phonics is taught in a highly structured programme of daily lessons across EYFS/KS1 following the Sounds~Write programme. For children identified needing additional support in KS2, children are taught in differentiated groups. At Hadrian, it is our aim to provide children with the skills necessary to be able to read confidently and fluently and to be able to access information throughout the curriculum.

The Phonics Programme

Children are given daily opportunities to develop their reading skills. In Nursery, pupils begin to develop their listening skills and to discriminate between sounds, recognising rhythm, rhyme and alliteration. They develop oral blending and segmenting of sounds in words. This is enhanced through Launch Pad for Literacy and BLAST programme that supports language and communication development. In Reception and KS1, children learn to read using the Sounds-Write linguistic phonics approach. The following conceptual knowledge is taught:

• Letters are symbols (spellings) that represent sounds.
• A sound may be represented or spelled by 1,2,3 or 4 letter eg dog , street, night, dough.
• The same sound may be spelled in more than one way (one sound-different spellings) eg rain, break, gate, stay.
• Many spellings can represent more than one sound (one spelling- different sounds) eg head, seat, break.

They develop the skills of blending (combining sounds together to build words), segmenting (breaking up a word into individual sounds) and manipulating sounds to read and spell words correctly. This is carried out daily in Reception and Year 1 and is supported by Polly Phonics facilitated by South Shields FC. In Year 2 the Sounds-Write approach is continued and the rules and concepts of spelling are introduced. Key Stage 2 pupils who require further support in phonics, continue with dedicated phonics sessions. 

Phonics Assessment

Children’s progress is continually reviewed and they are formally assessed at the end of each term.

The National Phonics screening check is performed in June of Year 1. The Year 1 phonics workshop gives parents information about how they can support their children at home with phonics. The purpose of the screening check is to confirm that all children have learned phonic decoding to an age-appropriate standard. The children who did not meet the required standard for the check in Year 1, enter again in Year 2 with additional support. As children enter KS2, provision is made for those children requiring phonic support.

Reading Statement:

At Hadrian Primary School children will learn to read with confidence, fluency and understanding, providing them with the skills required to achieve a lifetime of enjoyment through reading.

Children read in school independently, in guided groups, with reading buddies, and as a shared whole class sessions. They listen to adults and other children read, taking part in paired reading with their own and other age groups.

Our Reading aims are:

• To promote reading for pleasure.

• To promote confidence and positive attitudes to reading through access to a wide range of literature.

• To develop phonetic skills which lead to blending and reading accurately and fluently.

• To broaden their vocabulary.

• To develop comprehension skills, and enable children to analyse what they read and to participate in discussion and debate about texts.

• To encourage good home/school partnerships.

• To monitor each child’s progress through the use of a range of assessment strategies eg Reading Age tests, on-going reading observations, phonic tracking and matching reading books to phonic ability.

• To support those children who require additional support with their reading.

Reading in School

Many activities take place which promote pre-reading skills. Children become aware of print in their environment and match pictures and words. The development of language comprehension is supported through rich and varied talk  for a range of purposes and regular reading of high quality texts. Children are introduced to helicopter stories allowing them to orally compose a story which is acted out by themselves and their peers.

Initially, as children learn to read, they are given a picture book with no words with the intention that they will share the book and take part in a conversation generated by the pictures. Adults continually modelling of story language to support the development of vocabulary. As the children's knowledge of letters and sounds develop they begin to phonetically decode words.

The first books given are Dandelion Readers, which are fully phonetically decodable and match children's phonics stage. Our reading books are then organised into coloured Book Bands. Children are assessed regularly and move onto the next Book Band when their fluency and understanding show that they are ready to do so. We use Bug Club, Reading Buddy and Reading Plus to support reading both at school and at home. Children move through the Book Bands until they reach the required standard to become a Free-Reader, choosing a book to read from our well-stocked school or class libraries. In addition to a personalised reading book children are able to take a book home from the school library. In KS2 there is a greater emphasis on comprehension with most children decoding easily.

Developing Reading for Pleasure

We try to encourage a love of reading by holding book themed days and events both as individual classes and across the whole school eg World Book Day. DEAR time (drop everything and read) which engages the children with reading at the end of each day. We have strong links with South Shields library and all children are encouraged to participate in the summer reading challenge as well as having workshops and trips throughout the year. Reading assemblies take place regularly, introducing children to a variety of literature. Book Fairs are held to allow all children the chance to look at new books of all genres and hopefully purchase a new book of their own to take home!

Our well-stocked school library promotes authors and a range of reading material to appeal to all pupils. Children's suggestions for new books are encouraged and purchased.

Assessment of Reading

Reading is assessed regularly and monitored on the school tracking system. Children are given end-of-term tests from Year 1 to check progress. In addition, in KS2, Reading Plus is used to monitor progress. Liaison with the school SENCO and external agencies is arranged for children who require additional support and reading intervention strategies. 

Assessment of Phonics

Phonic knowledge is assessed regularly and monitored on Phonics Tracker Online. Children are assessed on their ability to recognise sounds, on segmenting and blending as well as phoneme deletion. Teachers baseline children at the start of every year group and assessments are carried out termly to monitor progress. In Reception, children are assessed more regularly to ascertain what Unit reading books they are working on. Our lowest 20% of readers join phonic intervention groups at least 3 times per week to support them to catch up with their peers.