Reading & Phonics
Intent
Reading is a fundamental skill – and it is essential that we get the teaching of this right. That is why we place reading at the heart of all we do; both teaching reading lessons explicitly (learning to read) and encouraging reading in all other subjects (reading to learn). Reading widens a pupil’s world, allowing them to imagine and experience the lives, settings and opinions of others which they may not otherwise be exposed to. We therefore recognise that it is crucial for all pupils to master the skills associated with reading in order to be able to access all that our curriculum offers them. The ability to read fluently and effectively and understand how to apply these skills has a direct impact upon progress and attainment in all areas of the curriculum and also upon a pupil’s self-esteem, well-being and motivation to learn. Therefore, we want our readers to gain a range of strategies that they can employ to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and texts. Furthermore, we wish to develop the love of reading for enjoyment. This is crucial for our pupils as we support them to become lifelong readers.
We have therefore adopted a curriculum that seeks to rigourously and securely develop pupils’ knowledge and skills in reading which follows a clear path of progression as they develop through the school. From learning phonics and the skills of early reading to exploring a range of texts and genres, including poetry, fiction (modern and classic) and non-fiction, and then onto more complex understanding of authorship and how language choice can impact the reader – the journey of learning how to read is clearly mapped at Longthorpe Primary School. This is through our fully embedded use of the FFT (Family Fisher Trust) phonics programme in Reception and KS1, the FFT ‘Routes to Reading’ programme in year 2 and the SFA (Success For All) ‘Wings’ programme in KS2.
Implementation
The FFT Phonics Programme
At Longthorpe we implement the FFT phonics programme which provides 68 fully decodable reading books, daily phonics and reading lessons, assessment tools, picture cards, mnemonics for letter formation and all other teaching resources needed to support the effective teaching of phonics from EYFS to the end of Year 1. Lessons occur daily, and the plans cover all the main grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and common exception words (CEWs) to provide pupils with the phonics knowledge and skills required for success in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check and in developing their early reading. This approach is also used to teach pupils who are new to English, learning phonics for the first time or have SEND linked to reading. We implement the phonics programme alongside the Reading Assessment Programme (RAP) which we use as an effective diagnostic tool. The FFT programme is fully aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum and National Curriculum programme of study for reading in Key Stage 1. The programme is underpinned by a set of seven core principles designed to support all teachers and pupils.
The Year 2 FFT ‘Routes To Reading’ Programme
Our Year 2 reading curriculum is designed to enable pupils to master the skills, knowledge and understanding for reading fluency and comprehension as they finish the phonics programme and transition to the complexities of reading longer texts and short novels. They will experience fifteen texts from a range of types and genres and through these, will deepen their comprehension skills and understanding and increase the level of vocabulary practised and learned. The programme has been deliberately designed to build on pupils’ phonemic knowledge, decoding, fluency and comprehension skills learned in year 1 through a deliberately planned structure. Lessons include: reading for meaning and understanding tasks; choral reads, echo reads, partner reads or independent reads; reading journal activities; comprehension tasks; and time for questions, reflections, to revisit and consolidate and for the celebration of reading successes.
The Year 3 – 6 Success For All ‘Wings’ Programme
The Wings programme includes a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts. The range of fiction books covers classic, traditional, modern and online books as well as poetry and play scripts. All the books are progressively challenging. The Quest programme follows on from Wings 5 and includes Manga and graphic novels. Wings 2 – 5 have 3 phases within them that build on the skills of reading learnt previously in FFT and moves pupils onto a deeper understanding of comprehension, summarising, clarifying and analysis. Each Wings phase has a ‘Savvy Reader’ unit connected to it, which teaches the pupils questioning (Wings 2 only) and clarifying (all Wings) skills in order to prepare them for reading the books within the proceeding units.
Reading Roadmap
Key Documents
Full Reading Curriculum Overview
To find out more about our reading curriculum please contact the school office.