Phonics and Early Reading in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
At Coates Lane School, we use phonics as the main strategy in teaching children to read
We begin in Reception using the Jolly Phonics scheme alongside Letters and Sounds to teach phonics from:
Phase 1 – exploring sounds
Phases 2 and 3 – learning to recognise single phonemes then digraphs, learning to blend and segment
Following on through from Phase 4 to Phase 6, which focuses more on the development of grammar.
Children have daily phonics sessions which follow the ‘revisit, teach, practise, apply’ model; these skills are then applied through independent work and Continuous Provision activities. We recognise that phonics is not the only way that children learn to read and we encourage a range of strategies to be used.
We make the teaching of early reading fun and engaging and allow every child to succeed and progress at their own pace whilst being suitably challenged.
We believe that reading for pleasure and enjoyment is essential and each classroom has its own Reading Area. Children take home reading books to share with parents and carers; we use Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat and Project X phonic texts which are matched to phonic phases and book banded.
Children take part in Guided Reading sessions twice a week to consolidate and apply their phonic skills and also to develop reading comprehension.