Phonics, Reading & Writing
Phonics
At Lepton CE Academy, we strive to ensure that all children become successful, fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1, and believe this is achievable through a combination of high quality, discrete phonics teaching, combined with a whole language approach that promotes a reading for pleasure culture.
Children first learn their letter sounds and names then apply these to word building. We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds as the basis for our teaching of phonics. This is a recognised synthetic phonic schemes. The children will also learn a variety of other key words by sight. In reception and year 1 children read with an adult three times a week as part of a group. Once they are immersed in a text, this book is taken home to enjoy with their grownups. These children also benefit from a reading for pleasure book which is taken home weekly to share.
Parent information can be found by following this link:
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Children who have not met the required standard for phonics in Year 1 or 2 continue to have booster phonics sessions working through the phases either individually or in small group sessions. This continues across Key Stage 2 if necessary. Children who are catching up are encouraged to take home a phonics reading book in order to further support at home. Where children do not read at home, staff facilitate extra reading sessions in the school day.
Reading
At Lepton CE Academy, we believe that reading is vital in order to help our pupils become good learners with increased knowledge and understanding in all areas of the curriculum. We also know that we are helping to develop well-rounded, independent thinkers, who can use their reading skills in the next steps of their learning journeys and into adulthood.
How do we do this?
Our reading curriculum is carefully mapped and planned to ensure pupils begin their education in Nursery and Reception with expert phonics teaching, continue into Key Stage 1 where pupils become fluent readers and are showing an increasing awareness of what they have read so they can answer and ask questions about the text. Decodable books are used to practice and consolidate phonics which have been taught in class. Along this journey, pupils receive any additional support such as interventions and additional reading time, as required.
In Key Stage 1 we aim to ensure fluency in reading. Children will get the opportunity to read decodable books linked to their phonics and knowledge of letters and sounds. They will practise reading with fluency, prosody and developing comprehension skills; this will all be done in our 'Reading Practice' sessions. Children will also have many opportunities to read and come in contact with a wider range of texts, such as: class books, books linking to topic learning, story books and various other texts. Once children are immersed in this Reading Practice session text, this book is taken home to enjoy with their grownups. These children also benefit from a reading for pleasure book which is taken home weekly to share.
From in Key Stage 2, we ensure that our pupils are able to read age-related texts. Children are exposed to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts and we teach them to understand what they are reading. We cover skills such as retrieval and inference; in addition, we have a strong emphasis on language skills and learning new words and phrases. These are taught and practised daily in whole-class reading lessons called ‘Comprehension Champions’.
Reading is positively promoted both in school and at home with our ‘Lepton’s Reading Champions’ home/school reading scheme. All children are given a home/school reading diary.
The expectation is to read for 10 minutes daily at home, either independently or where appropriate an adult to read to their child. Each box in their reading diary represents 10 minutes. When a child has completed 30 boxes, they receive a certificate. There are 12 certificates in total. At certificate 6, pupils receive a book of their choice and at certificate 12 they are awarded with a book voucher.
Click here to see some photographs of some of our Reading Champions
Our school is a reading school and we value the importance of reading. Each class has a reading friend, which takes place once a week.
On a Friday afternoon, year 6 are ‘Reading Buddies’ and are paired up with a pupil from reception where they share books.
World Book Day
As a school, we encourage pupil voice and each year our school council organise fun activities to support World Book Day. Last year, all the teachers took part in ‘The Masked Reader’ where the children had to decide which teacher was behind the mask.
Click here to watch some of our Masked Readers - can you guess who they are?
Scholastic Book Fair
Each year in the autumn term we run the Scholastic Book Fair, which is always a huge success. Our school council then decide on books to buy for each class.
Summer Reading Challenge
All children from year 1 to year 5 have the opportunity to take part in our Summer Reading Challenge.
There are 3 awards:
Bronze award – read 3 books
Silver award – read another 3 books
Gold award – read another 3 books
Click on the relevant link to see the year group recommended reading list:
Year 5 https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks2-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-for-year-5-pupils-ks2-age-9-10/
How to help at home
Listen to your child read! They will always bring home a book which is carefully chosen for challenge and enjoyment. Support them. If you would like more guidance on how to do this, please do not hesitate to ask your child’s teacher.
Read alongside your child. Being a positive role model is a fantastic way to show your child that reading can be fun.
Encourage them to read daily, even if they read articles on websites or newspapers and magazines. It all helps!
Writing
At Lepton CE Academy, we challenge our pupils to become better writers where writing activities are purposeful and meaningful. We promote high standards of language and literacy skills by equipping pupils with a strong command of the spoken and written word and to develop their love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. Children are taught through a layered learning skills approach and are exposed to texts that are exciting and engaging and capture the imagination of all children within the class.
All classes have a literacy working wall, which models the learning journey and scaffolds their next steps for learning.
Literacy is taught daily for one hour and each class has a writer of the week where their work is displayed in the dining room.
Handwriting
Handwriting is taught using the cursive script from Y1 upwards, and to celebrate the change from pencil to pen in KS2, children receive their Licence to Ink.
Spellings
In Year 1 children learn spellings during phonics to go alongside taught GPSs. Spellings are done in class and parents will be made aware of their child's letter and sound focus for the week in order to practise at home. Once your child has completed their phonics program, they will then move on to a spelling scheme. The spelling rule is taught on a Friday morning and the list of spellings are set on the child’s purple mash account. Children practise the rule daily every morning and they are tested the following week. You can support your child at home by practising the rule with them and think of other words that also follow the rule.