Phonics and Reading Schemes
Phonics
Year 1 phonics tests are given internally. Each child is given 40 real words and made up words, which they have to read phonetically.
The results for the Year 1 phonics were very good for 2016, with 87% of children getting 32/40- which is the mark as required by the government. Nationally 81% achieved this in 2016.
Those children who are less confident about applying their phonics knowledge are given booster clubs- at a lunchtime for KS1- and phonics teaching given high priority during the school day, with plenty of opportunity to apply skills.
In lower KS2 there are phonics boosters in the morning, again giving the children chance to apply what they have learnt to sentence level work.
The children in upper KS2 are given dictations as a booster, focusing on spelling patterns.
No-nonsense spelling is used to ensure coverage across all year groups.
Staff have had CPD (continued professional development) on using talk for writing, reading with groups and individuals.
Reading Books
We have continued to invest in more new books across KS1 which are part of the Big Cat scheme. These will enable the books to be used in sets for guided reading. The scheme uses real books and exciting stories to engage and stretch the children. In KS2 we have supplemented the Rapid Readers with Rapid Phonics books, which reinforce and practise phonemes to support the teaching and application of phonics for those children who still need to consolidate their learning. We have bought new reading scheme books and proper books for use in the curriculum and for individual reading each year to encourage and engage reading within the school. Bug Club has been purchased as a guided reading scheme for Year Three and Four and we will review the impact in summer 2017.