English

Phonics and Reading Policy 

Intent

At St Theresa's, we believe that all our children can become fluent, confident and competent readers and writers. To ensure this happens we teach using the DfE validated programme Ready Steady Phonics. This is a synthetic, systematic phonics programme  based upon the Letters and Sounds 2007. We follow the Ready Steady Phonics progression document which systematically develops children’s understanding of the phonics code and builds upon previous learning in an incremental manner as they move through school.

The programme  develops children’s ability to blend and segment, using their current phonics knowledge, allowing early success and increasing their confidence in reading. As a result the children at St Theresa's are able to tackle unfamiliar words using their phonics knowledge.

At St Theresa's we also model and apply the skills taught in the discrete phonics session into reading and writing across the curriculum, demonstrating contextual application of the skills taught.

We have a strong focus on language development as we recognise that speaking and listening are crucial skills that underpin reading and writing.

At St Theresa's we also want our children to be able to read for meaning and pleasure and to be able to view themselves as lifelong readers. The matched decodable readers provided by Ready Steady Phonics support this and provide engaging and meaningful texts for children to decode and to discuss for understanding. Development of comprehension is promoted within the Ready Steady Phonics Guided Reading Sessions and these are built on further as the children move through our school.

We have a skilled Early Reading and Phonics Lead in our school who is responsible for Ready Steady Phonics,  monitoring and supporting the practice and ensuring fidelity to the Ready Steady Phonics programme. 

Implementation

Nursery

At St Theresa's, we provide a balance of adult and child-led activities which meet the curriculum, expectations in ‘Communication and language’ and Literacy’. These include:

• Sharing high quality stories, poems and non-fiction
• Learning a range of songs and nursery rhymes
• High quality language interactions
• A range of quality listening activities, moving toward oral segmenting and blending by the end of nursery.

Reception and Year 1

Daily Lessons

• Phonics is taught daily for 30 mins. At the beginning of Reception the programme begins in Week 2, with shorter, engaging, age appropriate, 10 minute sessions, but quickly develops into the full-length sessions. Built into the programme is a review session every Friday, alongside regular review and assessment weeks, so that we have a clear understanding of where our children are at and what further teaching they may need to allow them early success.
• The daily sessions include a clear 4 part lesson, Revisit/Revise, Teach, Practice and Apply and cover letter formation, segmenting and blending, real and pseudo words and application into reading and writing.
• We follow the Ready Steady Phonics progression document through Reception and Year 1 which gives clear, high expectations about what is to be taught and when.

Ready Steady Go: Keeping All Children On Track

• Any child who is identified as requiring additional support will receive immediate intervention through the Ready Steady Go These are in addition to their daily Ready Steady Phonics lesson.
• The sessions are 15-20 mins long and are between 3 and 5 times per week in frequency, depending on the area of difficulty identified.
• The sessions using the same procedures, resources and materials as Ready Steady Phonics but with more repetition and scaffolding with a fully trained adult.
• Regular phonics lessons using the Ready Steady Phonics materials are also timetabled for any children in Y2- 6 for children who are not fluent in decoding or who have not passed the phonics Screening Check in Y2. The Ready Steady Assessments are used to clearly identify the gaps in knowledge for those children so that the appropriate teaching can be put in place by a trained adult.
• Children with common and specific difficulties are taught in small groups/1:1 using the Ready Steady Phonics

Teaching Reading

• Ready Steady Phonics provides matched reading books which align directly to the Ready Steady Phonics progression document. These are available on-line and/or hard copies
• The teaching of reading takes place through:
• A Shared Read of the decodable text, led by a trained adult at some point following the Friday session
• A Guided Read of the decodable text will take place with a trained adult
• This book will also be used for 1:1/independent reading for consolidation and to develop confidence.
• The books cover fiction, non-fiction and rhyme

Home reading

• The decodable reading book is taken home/access to the online reading book given
• The children are expected to read this to an adult, practicing and consolidating their skills in phonics
• This is monitored by the class teacher and the Early Reading and Phonics Lead
• Support for parents in how to listen and support their child in reading a phonically decodable book is given on the Ready Steady Phonics Website: Parent/Carers section

Reading for Pleasure and enjoyment

Improves Wellbeing:

          “Reading for pleasure has social benefits as well and can make people feel more connected to the wider community. Reading increases a person’s understanding of their own identity, improves empathy and gives them an insight into the world view of others” (The Reading Agency 2015).”

Improves Academic Success

“Students with more positive attitudes towards reading are more likely to read at or above the expected level for their age” (Clark 2014)

Improves Knowledge and Understanding

“I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most”  Margaret Attwood - Author

• At St Theresa's we value immensely reading for pleasure and enjoyment and we understand the value this can add to children. To encourage our children to engage with and have a love of books we:

• Incoperate daily story time E.g. We have a daily, 20 minute story time. We choose a range of books for these, fiction, non-fiction and poetry, stories from other cultures, and books that reflect our local community
• Book Corners E.g. All classrooms have a book corner which encourages a love of reading. These are timetabled so that children are using the books purposefully and we can support their choice. The books within these areas are specifically chosen to link with topics, recently read story books etc.
• Other reading materials the children take home E.g. All children take home a shared book which they can choose from a selected number (guided by the teacher). This is for them to share with parents/carers to be read to and to talk about.
• Library time
• Home reading records
• Hold regular book fairs each year 
• Encourage reading with our class buddies 

Impact

Assessment

Formative

• Daily formative assessment is built into the Ready Steady Phonics teaching sequence and the workbooks have a dedicated, daily opportunity to record formative assessment to be reinforced in the daily Ready Steady Go sessions
• The weekly Friday session allow opportunities to review and identify gaps in learning that will then be addressed in the Ready Steady Go additional sessions
• Ongoing observations of children during the phonics lesson to inform gaps in learning and broader application of phonics skills and knowledge across the curriculum

Summative

• Regular five or six weekly assessments take place as identified in the Ready Steady Phonics progression document. These weeks will be used to assess progress and identify children who need further group/individual support.
• The assessments will be shared with the Early Reading and Phonics Lead/SLT to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of children, with a focus on the bottom 20%

Statutory Assessment

• All children in Year 1 will sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.
• Year 2 children will sit the Statutory Assessment Tests in Reading towards the end the Year which will inform gaps in learning.

Ongoing assessment for Ready Steady Go: Keeping All Children On Track

• • Children in Years 2-6 will be assessed through on-going formative assessment as well as through the regular Ready Steady Phonics summative assessments.

Writing at St. Theresa’s Catholic Primary School

Intent

At St Theresa’s primary school, we plan and teach explicitly for English.  The children are taught English skills within English lessons and we expect to see the skills they have learnt applied in other subjects.  We consider good English teaching to be lively, engaging and to involve a carefully planned blend of approaches that direct children’s learning.  The children should be challenged to think.  The teacher provides children with good support but requires independence as appropriate.  The balance of adult-led and child initiated activity is an important element of planning in EYFS, but similarly throughout the primary school, opportunities should be provided for children to initiate their own learning and to use and apply the English skills they have been taught.  The pitch and pace of the work is sensitive to the rate at which the children learn while ensuring that expectations are kept high and progress is made by all children.  Although the learning focus may give greater weight to learning in a particular strand or area of English, the strong interdependence between speaking, listening, reading and writing should underpin planning and provision for learning. 

We believe that good English teaching involves teachers identifying and defining the English skills and knowledge that the children are expected to learn, then clearly map out how they will lead the children to the intended learning.  Children know that they can discuss and seek help as and when they need to.  Children will be challenged and enjoy opportunities to practice and apply their learning. Whilst teaching explicit English we plan for English through other subjects to provide opportunities for children to present their skills and provide opportunities for extended and meaningful pieces of reading and writing.   Children should be provided with opportunities to support one another and participate in group work.  We expect good English teaching to involve children to be happy to share their ideas and to explain their reasoning and methods.  Children who need more support than others should be identified quickly by teachers and seek the advice of the SENDco to ensure that these children receive early intervention to help them maintain their progress.  Good teaching of English requires a good knowledge of the subject, an understanding of the progression in the curriculum being taught and recognition that some teaching approaches are better suited to promote particular learning outcomes.

How we implement this at St. Theresa’s school

From Reception to Year 6, we teach the statutory curriculum for writing through the Literacy Company’s carefully constructed text-based scheme ‘Pathways to Write’ units.  Pathways to Write is a proven methodology built around units of work which develop vocabulary, reading and writing skills through the mastery approach. Each unit has a clear structure, engaging resources and are taught through engaging, vocabulary rich texts which create purposeful English lessons which our wider curriculum is then linked to.  Within each unit, there are age-related skills for children to work on and master through a variety of activities and writing opportunities. By limiting the number of skills the units contain, children can really hone their writing techniques, providing excellent, focused assessment opportunities We particular understand how spoken language, reading and writing are intrinsically linked and our guided reading sessions, shared reading sessions, language curriculum and wider curriculum support each other and re-enforce skills learned.  Our writing curriculum is ambitious and the programme seeks to challenge every child including greater-depth writers. There are 6 half-termly units per year group with a wealth of writing opportunities in each.  There is a heavy emphasis on vocabulary learning and contextualised spelling, grammar and punctuation

Impact

At St. Theresa’s Primary School we firmly believe in teacher assessment and skilling teachers up through training and moderation sessions to make accurate judgements. Children will be assessed through formative assessments judged on independent writing pieces.   Please see the attached documents for outcomes and progression expectations accompanied by exemplification materials:

• Pathways to write – reading and spoken language development
• Pathways to write – texts and mastery overview (for sentence word and grammar development)
• Progression in mastery
• Feature key progression (for genre development)
• Assessment of writing
• Exemplification materials

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