EYFS

In Nursery, Phase One of Letters and Sounds is taught which concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Phase 2. The emphasis during Phase 1 is to get children attuned to the sounds around them and ready to begin developing oral blending and segmenting skills. Phase 1 is divided into seven aspects. Each aspect contains three strands: Tuning in to sounds (auditory discrimination), Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and sequencing) and Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language comprehension).

In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time in a sequential order. A letter is taught each week from the spring term. As soon as letters are introduced, children will be encouraged to use their knowledge of the letter sounds to blend and sound out words.

In Reception, children quickly consolidate letter-sound correspondence introduced in Nursery and begin word level blending and segmenting. Every day a new letter sound is learned through the use of colourful mnemonic picture cards, rhymes, chants and props to bring the lessons alive. There is plenty of opportunity for partner work and celebrating learning. Children master the following skills of auditory blending and segmenting, letter-sound correspondence, word-level blending and sound spelling.

From the spring term, children engage in small guided reading session four times a week. In these sessions children have the opportunity to read as a group, with a partner and independently, developing essential early reading skills.

In Nursery and Reception we have books in all areas of the class to develop a culture and love of books. In Literacy we teach and read a whole class text in a three week cycle using Pie Corbett Talk for Writing. We use these books as core curriculum focus whereby it links to all areas of the curriculum.

Reading and Vocabulary

In addition to our weekly reading lessons, children are given the opportunity to read an age appropriate text of their choice within their classroom. These books were carefully selected based on the language used and link to topic and children’s interests. Within these sessions, children have time to read independently and record language they come across which they either need to clarify or find interesting. These are later shared with the whole class during discussion time. Towards the end of these weekly sessions, the class come together to complete activities with the class teacher based on unknown vocabulary and the power of language. During the final session, the children explore their class text, whereby the teacher reads an extract from the book to the children. Activities are then completed based around what they have read.

Whole School Texts

To view an overview of our focus texts from Nursery through to Year 6, please click on the link below.

Whole School Reading Text Overview