Clover Hill Community Primary School

The teaching of phonics – a guide for parents.

At Clover Hill Primary School high priority is given to reading. We see reading as the key component in producing excellence. We are committed to a whole school approach to the teaching of reading. All members of staff from Reception through to Year 6 have a secure knowledge of phonics and are able to us this information to embed a consistent approach to teaching and assessment.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Reception Class

We use Letters and sounds as our scheme of work and use Jolly Phonics actions alongside this. Children will be grouped by phonic ability and activities differentiated. Children will be assessed on recognition and recall of the 26 initial sounds and the digraphs taught. All initial sounds are pronounced with out the schwa (u sound).

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Home reading books are either key word or phonic readers and children will be taught using both. Children will practise written phonics through focussed phonic activities and also through topic related writing tasks. All writing is emergent writing with the children attempting to write using phonic knowledge at their stage of development – this will be mark making and using random letters initially. All writing is valued.

Children in Reception have one literacy book where phonic work is recorded as appropriate. Children’s phonic activities will be predominantly delivered through games and through activities set up in classroom areas initially. Tricky words are taught alongside phonically decodable words.

Children read once a week with the teacher.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Year 1:

Phonics will be taught daily. We use Letters and Sounds as our scheme of work and initially reinforce Jolly phonics actions alongside this.

Children will be grouped by phonic, reading and writing ability and activities differentiated.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Children will practise written phonics through focussed phonic activities and also through topic related writing tasks. Children will attempt to write using phonic knowledge at their stage of development. All writing is valued.

Children in Year 1 have a phonics book for specific phonics activities, a writing book and a special writing book. Written work will also be found in topic and RE/PSHCE books and marked specifically to the success criteria for the activity.

Not all incorrect spelling is to be corrected. Key words and regular words should be corrected but plausible attempts at more complex words are left at the class teacher’s discretion.

Children will take part in reading workshop sessions five times a week and will be heard read at least once a week by the class teacher. Independent activities during guided reading are designed to support and consolidate phonics already covered in class and will usually be practical.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Children take home spellings each week (from the Summer term) to learn to reinforce phonics covered in class. Spelling tests take place on a weekly basis and scores are recorded. These spellings are differentiated.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Year 2:

Phonics will be taught discretely twice a week. We use Letters and Sounds as our scheme of work. Children will be grouped by phonic ability for the discrete sessions and activities differentiated. Reading books are either key word or phonic readers and children will be taught using both.

Children in Year 2 record their phonics work on mini-whiteboards. Children will attempt to write daily, using their phonics knowledge, at their stage of development in all areas of class work. Children’s phonic activities will be predominantly delivered through games and through activities set up in class. Tricky words are taught alongside phonically decodable words.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Not all incorrect spelling is to be corrected. Key words and regular words should be corrected but plausible attempts at more complex words are left at the class teacher’s discretion.

Children will take part in reading workshop sessions three times a week and will be heard to read independently at least once a week by an adult (teacher/TA/parent helper). Independent activities during guided reading are designed to support and consolidate phonics already covered in class and will usually be practical.

Children take home spellings each week to learn to reinforce phonics covered in class. Spelling tests take place on a weekly basis and scores are recorded. These spellings are differentiated.

Any child identified as School Action on an IEP receives extra phonics support outside of the classroom once a week. Reading age is monitored through a termly Salford Reading Test. Reading assessment files are regularly updated,

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 for each child, to ensure continued progress is made in phonics and all areas of reading.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 L ower Key Stage 2

The majority of Year 3 and 4 pupils are able readers and their phonic knowledge is comprehensive and beyond the phases of letters and sounds. Any pupils who have major gaps in their phonic understanding are identified and where appropriate, have an IEP in place and extra SEN provision to address the individual issues and difficulties.

Children will take home reading books on a regular basis (leveled according to reading ability) as well as 2 library books per week which they select from a book band range, broadly matching their reading ability but chosen by the child for enjoyment.

Weekly spellings will be taught in class, and then taken home for extra practise. Children will also cover 2 or 3 key words per week to ensure these basic words are spelt correctly.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Children will engage in a daily reading workshop activity lasting around 20 minutes. Activities will be differentiated and children will work in ability groups tackling tasks matched to their needs. Less able pupils will cover more phonic activities ensuring practise at word building, sound recognition and key word work is regular.

Any child with an IEP will receive extra phonics and reading support outside the classroom for 1 session per week.

Children who will benefit from the Lexia program will attend a short session at least 3 times per week (more if timetabling allows). One of these sessions is an extra lunchtime activity aimed at boosting reading performance.

Reading ages will be monitored through a termly Salford Reading Test, an annual Suffolk test and optional reading SAT in January and May each year.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Guided reading will take place daily, each group reading with the class teacher once a week. Specific objectives from the reading assessment files (TIPPS) will be addressed and individual records updated when appropriate. Less able pupils read once a week with the class TA in addition to this.

Not all incorrect spellings will be corrected in children’s books, though key words and regular words will be expected to be correct. Children will be encouraged to keep an individual log of words they find tricky or keep making errors with.

Reinforcement of phonics and general reading skills will be taught during a daily shared reading session within the literacy lesson.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Upper Key Stage 2

Years 5 and 6 are taught phonics through a mixture of fiction and non‐fiction texts. This includes but is not limited to historical stories, poetry (creating images), stories set in imagined worlds, recounts (newspaper and magazine), Stories from different cultures and information texts (dictionary work), Stories which raise issues, plays, explanation texts & persuasive texts.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Differentiated spellings are given to children. This consists of approximately (but not limited to) 3 patterns each half term. These spellings are tested and reinforced every week through homework. These spellings will not only include patterns but also tricky words. Spellings are differentiated and the results recorded.

Reading consists of a mixture of individual reading (when reading class texts), and guided reading (given opportunity to share ideas in a small group)

Guided reading texts are differentiated as per groups needs. The children will be heard to read by an adult at least once a week as part of the Reading Workshop activity. This allows us to assess children’s comprehension skills e.g. their viewpoints, main points in story, character’s viewpoints, skimming and scanning text. The children also have access to phonically grouped and differentiated texts. They also have free choice of a library book.

Reading age & ability will be assessed and recorded termly.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 15

Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Children’s daily writing will use their phonic knowledge and will be appropriate for their stage of development. Not all incorrect spelling will be corrected, as this can demotivate and demoralise. This correction will be left at the class teacher’s discretion.

Any child identified as School Action on an IEP receives extra phonics support through withdrawal activities via support teacher or teaching assistant.

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013 Useful Websites The following is a list of websites used at school by staff or children. This list is by no means exhaustive, if you know of anymore then please let us know. http://www.primaryresources.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/sandcastle/flash/game.shtml http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar4.htm http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/english http://www.crickweb.co.uk http://www.ictgames.com http://www.amblesideprimary.com www.lovereading4kids.co.uk www.literacytrust.org.uk www.readingagency.org.uk/findaread www.booktrust.org.uk www.signedstories.com

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Clover Hill Community Primary School 2013