Reading
How do we teach children to read?
We follow the Essential Letters and Sounds Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) Phonics Programme for our children in Foundation Stage 1 and 2 and Year 1.
The aim of ELS is to get all children to read well, quickly. It teaches children to read by identifying the phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and graphemes (the written version of the sound) within words and using these to read words.
Phonics is taught every day during a dedicated slot on the timetable. We begin by teaching the single letter sounds before moving to diagraphs (two letters spelling one sound), trigraphs (three letters spelling one sound) and quadgraphs (four letters spelling one sound).
We teach children to:
- Decode by identifying each sound within a word and blending them together to read fluently
- Encode by segmenting each sound to write words accurately.
We also teach Harder to Read and Spell Words. These are words that need to be learnt by sight. Children learn to read these words and then when confident, how to spell them.
See below for an overview of the sounds and Harder to Read and Spell words that are taught each year and letter sound pronounciation.
How often will my child read at school?
Children have opportunities to read during each ELS lesson. We decode individual words, read captions and sentences and look at de-codable books together.
In addition to this, children will read individually with the Teachers and Teaching Assistants at least once every 2 weeks. Reading books are changed every Friday and the books the children bring home will match the phonics that has been taught that week.
Another reading book will be sent home when the child is ready that closely matches their current reading level. The children should be able to confidently recognise and blend the sounds in these books.
What if my child needs some more support with reading?
ELS is designed on the principle that children should ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’. Interventions are delivered within the lesson by the teacher and any child who is struggling with the new knowledge can be immediately targeted with appropriate support. Where further support is required, additional intervention is used where needed. These interventions are short, specific and effective.
What can you do to help?
- Enjoy reading your school reading book at least 4 times a week.
- Make a note of your reading practice in the Green Reading records
- Practice reading the Harder to Read and Spell words.
- Read lots of other books for pleasure -Enjoy reading together – talking about characters, the story, illustrations and what might happen next!
Spelling
Alongside the reading (decoding), we also teaching the children en-coding (spelling) skills.
From Reception and through to Year 2, we teach the children to breakdown the sounds they can hear in words using the following Spelling Sequence:
This helps the children to identify the individual sounds that they can hear in words. In Year 2, children follow the Essential Spelling programme to help them develop a good understanding of encoding (spelling).