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St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Blackhall

Coast Road, Blackhall Colliery, Hartlepool TS27 4HE

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Home / Our Curriculum / Reading and Phonics

Reading and Phonics

Phonics

High quality phonics teaching is at the heart of early education, securing the crucial skills of word recognition that, once mastered, enable children to read fluently and automatically. Once children are fluent readers, they are able to concentrate on the meaning of the text and make the shift between learning to read and reading to learn. Reading is seen as a skill so essential to access the world around them.

In school we follow the Sounds-Write programme to teach phonics. We aim to ensure that all children are fluent readers by the time they leave KS1 and have a love and enjoyment of reading. All adults involved with teaching phonics have attended a 4-day training programme on the delivery of Sounds Write. Our reading scheme in Reception and Year One is entirely decodable, using Sounds-Write texts and Phonics Dandelion Readers.

Phonics and spelling

The Sounds-Write programme is used to teach phonics and spelling. We begin teaching an awareness of sound and sound identification in Nursery and as children show readiness they begin to access the initial code of Sounds-Write phonics. All pupils in Reception begin the initial code in the September of their Reception year. They continue on their phonics journey throughout Year One and into Year Two, with the aim of leaving KS1 as fluent readers, secure in word building and recognition.

We explicitly teach the 3 skills of:

  • Blending
  • Segmenting
  • Phoneme manipulation (sound swapping)

The children are taught to decode and encode by understanding 4 clear concepts:

  • Letters are symbols that represent sounds that they sa
  • Sounds can be spelt using 1,2,3 and 4 letters – f, oa, air, eigh
  • The same sound can be spelt in different ways – bone, coat, toe, window, shoulder
  • The same spelling can represent different sounds – bread, eat, great

All adults in school use the same consistent, concise language about sounds and spelling when teaching. We say that the letters spell sounds they do not say sounds. We use phrases such as:

In this word…
If this was…this would be…
This can spell…what else can it spell?
Say the sounds and read the word.
Where should children be at this point?
Where are they going to next?
What sounds do children know?

Consistency of time and resources are applied effectively to support the teaching of daily phonics. The discrete teaching of phonics and reading has become a natural and everyday part of every aspect of the curriculum.

Pupils in EYFS and KS1 are given additional support as required to master their phonics. Pupils in KS2, who have gaps in the phonics, continue to be supported through timely and effective intervention and decodable readers for older pupils.

Please take a look at our guide for more information:

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary – Parent /Carer Guide to Phonics

Early Reading

As a school, we acknowledge that a teacher of reading (which is every teacher) requires secure knowledge of each of the 5 areas below and should therefore teach reading as a skill which incorporates many other skills.

 

Parent links- Free course

Part 1:  https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/

Part 2: https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write-part-2/

Downloads

Sounds~Write leaflet for parents.pdf

 

Help for Pupils

Children also have home logins for the following online programmes:

  • Purple Mash
  • Bug Club

If you require any information about these programmes please see a member of staff.

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Copyright © 2022 St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, Blackhall

Coast Road

Blackhall Colliery

Hartlepool

TS27 4HE

Tel 0191 586 4308 · Email stjosephsblackhall@durhamlearning.net


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Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust is an exempt charity regulated by the Secretary of State for Education. It is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales (company number 09940352 ) whose registered office is at Evolve Business Centre, Cygnet Way, Rainton Bridge South Business Park, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne & Wear, DH4 5QY.

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