At Morpeth All Saints we use the Letters and Sounds phonics system with links to an electronic program called Phonics Play which pupils can also access from home. Phonics means the sounds that individual and groups of letters make. We use this to introduce reading and spelling phonetically regular words fromthe earliest days in Nursery and Reception.
In Reception children have daily lessons following the scheme which are differentiated and grouped as soon as is applicable so that children are receiving the correct input to allow them to make the best possible progress. Children continue to follow the Letters and Sounds system in Year One and Two and it is taught discretely throughout KS1 every morning at the same time, which allows pupils to be grouped according to the level they are currently reaching. This means every pupil makes progress based on their starting point. Additionally they have an English lesson daily in which they learn about different kinds of texts, both fiction and non fiction. They have spellings to learn weekly with some words based on a phonic pattern of letters, e.g. all ending in “igh” and some words which need to be learned as sight words because they do not follow the rules of phonics, e.g. said.
We have a variety of reading scheme books with the most predominant being those published by Oxford University Press. The Oxford reading scheme books included titles from Oxford ReadingTree, Floppy’s Phonics, Snapdragons and Songbirds, Poetry collections, Fact Finders, Project X and Playscripts. We also have Rigby Star , Big Cat and Tree Tops for more advanced readers. During Reception and Key Stage One classes, class teachers will hear children read from these books on an allocated day each week, and will provide additional books for home practice.
We have books to suit both boys and girls and use Kindles to provide reading materials at more advanced levels, which are still age appropriate. In Key Stage Two there continues to be emphasis on independent reading and Class teachers will provide books and will continue to hear children read individually, particularly where children still require regular support. The books we provide include Oxford Treetops and we are constantly adding to our collections of simpler “paperbacks”. The curriculum plans shown include the areas of Maths and English that will be taught. We do not provide fine detail of these as what we teach the pupils is based on our on going assessments of their understand and the next steps needed for moving after their learning forward. The links to the National Curriculum on this page will show you what the children should know, understand and be able by the end of their year in their current class.
Impact of Actions to Improve Phonics
All pupils who are not successful in passing the phonics screening in Summer 2015 were given an intervention for 12 weeks and retesting shows they have now all reached the required standard.