Intent
At Lumley Infant and Nursery School, an emphasis is placed on developing children’s early literacy skills, through the explicit teaching of reading and writing skills. Reading is categorised into two main areas; comprehension and word reading. Within the Early Years Foundation Stage, language comprehension develops through rich opportunities to talk, reading and sharing stories, enjoying nursery rhymes, poems and familiar songs together. When children are developmentally ready, skilled word reading, is taught within our nursery, with the introduction of our phonics programme Read Write Inc. Phonics. This is built upon in Reception where children are taught to decode unfamiliar words using their phonetic knowledge and read familiar word speedily, to read simple sentences in well-matched short texts, with confidence. The development of writing begins in Nursery, where children are encouraged to make marks to represent objects and words. Children are also taught how to write their own name. When children are developmentally ready, they will be supported in matching spoken sounds to their letter representation and this is then built upon to write simple words. In Reception, children follow the Read Write Inc. Writing scheme.
Knowledge and Key Skills Progression Grids:
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Implementation
Phonics
Read, Write, Inc. Phonics is used as the main scheme for teaching phonics in school. Read, Write, Inc. Phonics is a rigorous and dynamic synthetic phonics programme aimed at creating fluent and enthusiastic readers, confident speakers and willing writers. Children are taught the individual sounds first through a picture which is the same shape as the letter, for example for ‘a’ there is a picture of an apple and ‘s’ is a picture of a snake. These are called ‘speed sounds’ because we want your children to read them effortlessly. There are 3 sets of sounds. Set 1 contains all of the letters in the alphabet. The first 6 sounds taught are m, a, s, d, t, i, n. Once your child knows these sounds they can start learning to blend the sounds together to read words.
Reading
At Lumley Infant and Nursery School, we believe that all pupils should have access to a wide range of texts and genres to develop their vocabulary, language comprehension and love of reading across the whole curriculum. Pupils are familiar with and enjoy listening to a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction texts. We promote a love of reading through our inviting class story corners, puppet areas, author visits, regular book fairs and whole class story time sessions.
In Reception, children are grouped based on their reading ability to complete reading tasks every day. Every week, children follow a three or five day timetable, dependent upon their reading ability. Children have the opportunity to read a text, that is closely matched to their reading ability three times within their timetable, with the support of a class teacher or teaching assistant. The opportunity to revisit a texts allows children to build up their reading fluency and comprehension skills. This book is sent home along with another text for further practice. Although Read Write Inc. is the main programme used, we also have an abundance of reading schemes available in school, which are accessed in class story corners to give children breadth and depth to their reading.
Every week, pupils are given time to select a library book that they can take home to share with their family. This book is not matched to the children’s reading ability. The purpose of library books is to develop children’s love for reading and to equip all families with the opportunity to share a wealth of stories and non-fiction text with their children at home. The importance of reading aloud to children is promoted with parents and carers throughout the school year.
Writing
In Reception, direct teaching of writing happens daily, using the Read Write Inc. writing scheme. The main focus of this is sentence dictation, where children master the skill of remembering a dictated sentence and writing it down accurately. Children’s progress is recorded in their individual writing books. Explicit adult modelling and a wealth of opportunities to write within many classroom provision areas, such as opportunities to write shopping lists in the home corner, ensures pupils are able to use and apply their writing skills across the whole curriculum. Mastering the basics of writing a sentence is a focus within Reception, to prepare children for future learning in Year One. A sentence mantra, using symbols, provides pupils with a pictorial representation of what they need to include to write a perfect sentence:
Impact
By the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage, most children are able to:
Comprehension:
- Demonstrate understanding of what has been read to them by retelling stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary.
- Anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories.
- Use and understand recently introduced vocabulary during discussions about stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems and during role-play.
Word Reading:
- Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs.
- Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending.
- Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.
Writing:
- Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.
- Spell words by identifying sounds in them and representing the sounds with a letter or letters.
- Write simple phrases and sentences that can be read by others.
