Phonics and Reading
Reading at Langshott Primary School
Reading is fundamental in modern society and shapes us as critical thinking, learning and questioning citizens. Learning to read, and reading to learn, is the foundation for future education success and is the singular most important academic skill of our age - it really is the key to unlocking the rest of the academic curriculum. We love reading at Langshott Primary School, and it is the main driver for our whole curriculum. We aim to ensure that each and every child can read at an appropriate level for their age by the time they leave our school, regardless of any barriers.
Teaching of Phonics at Langshott Primary School
At Langshott, we believe that every child should have the chance to become happy, fluent readers. Therefore, Phonics is taught though a highly structured programme of daily lessons across EYFS and KS1, most importantly, lessons are planned according to the children’s need to help develop their love of reading and writing.
Children are taught phonics from the very start of their journey at school, we follow the Twinkl Phonics programme to ensure a consistent approach to the teaching of phonics. This scheme has been validated by the Department for Education and follows current best practice on the teaching of phonics and reading and educational research about the way that children learn best.
Children in Reception and KS1 have 5 phonics lessons a week which are delivered to the whole class. An overview of the sounds the children will learn through each of the stages can be found below. We have also produced a glossary to assist parents with a guide to the terminology used when we are teaching phonics.
Teaching of Reading at Langshott
Once children have mastered the art of learning to read, we focus our attention to teaching comprehension which is taught through whole class reading lessons. Children have 4 whole class reading lessons a week which focus on three key skills of the teaching of reading. These three skills are: vocabulary, retrieval and inference - we have identified these as being the key to unlocking children’s understanding of a text. The table below outlines a standard cycle of reading lessons across the week and shows how each skill is linked to the National Curriculum objective:
Story Time
Research has shown that if children read (or are read to) for 20 minutes a day they will be exposed to 1,800,000 words in one school year! We make a pledge to our children that they will be read to for 10 minutes a day by the class teacher or TA and they will make up the other half by reading at home for 10 minutes. Listening to all types of genres read by the teacher, for 10 minutes every day between Reception and Year 6, is essential in fostering a love of reading.
Supporting your child with reading at home
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home. Children are expected to read at home 5 times a week minimum and this should be encouraged at all times. They record their reading in their planners and they earn STAR points for reading (this varies according to each year group). If children read to an adult at school this is also recorded in their planner.
Rhino Readers
We use the Rhino Reader scheme in line with the Twinkl Phonics programme. Your child will bring home a Rhino Reader book each week and they will be changed every Thursday. Rhino Readers support your child’s fluency in reading, embedding previously taught phonics and tricky words (common exception words in Years 1 & 2). For this reason, the children read a sub level behind the class phonics level being taught. For example, a child being taught 4a phonics will be taking home a 3c Rhino Reader book.
Some children will take a second Rhino Reader book. The first reading book is at the level expected for a child of their age and matches the learning in class. If your child is working below the level expected for their age, they will take home a second Rhino Reader book which they can access independently.
The children keep their Rhino Reader book for a week, helping to embed skills. There will also be some repetition of text throughout the year, this will again help embed previous learning and support fluency.
In order to progress to the next Rhino Reader Level, children are required to answer comprehension questions in class to demonstrate an understanding of what they have read. At the back of each Rhino Reader book are ‘after reading’ comprehension questions. It is important to ask your child these questions each time they read. As they have this book for a week, please ask them a selection of questions each day, even if they only read part of the book each day.
When children are confident readers, reading a level 6c Rhino Reader books fluently and with a sound understanding, they will be able to choose their own reading material to take home.
Reading For pleasure
In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they read for pleasure. Your child may choose a book from their class or the school library as a reading for pleasure book, which they have chosen themselves and can be changed regularly. They have chosen this book because it interests them, this is for them to read at their own leisure or for you to enjoy together. Reading together and sharing books will support your child’s enjoyment of reading.
Listening to your child read every day significantly supports the progress they make, not just in reading but across the curriculum.
Recommended Reading Lists:
Making sure that children become engaged with reading from an early age is one of the most important ways to make a difference to their life chances. We are passionate about promoting reading for pleasure and encouraging children to access a range of texts. We encourage you to use these age-appropriate reading lists to discover new text-types and authors at home. You will find many of these texts in your local library or bookstore. We do encourage you to purchase any from independent bookstores to support small businesses.
www.booksfortopics.com/reception
Library
At Langshott Primary School, we are lucky enough to have an exciting, inspiring and well stocked Library. The Library is full of a variety of texts which support our children in learning about the world around them. All of our texts are organised into sections which make finding and selecting a book easy for our children. Each week the children visit the Library to have time to browse and select a book that interests them to borrow and enjoy at home. The aim of the borrowing library is to encourage children to share texts with their families at home and they return the books once they have finished enjoying them.
