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Belvedere Infant School
Our English leader is Mrs Box
At Belvedere Infant School, we promote a love of reading, writing and drama, as well as equipping children with the phonetical, comprehension, spelling, grammar and punctuation skills needed to be adept and fluent readers and writers. Literacy is covered through all subjects due to a more thematic, child centred approach, which has been introduced through the International Primary Curriculum (IPC).
Phonics
Early Reading – Synthetic Phonics
When children join our school, in Nursery, they begin to learn about sounds around them and learn about stories and the pleasure of reading. In Reception, they begin to use synthetic phonics to learn to read words. The name Synthetic Phonics is used – not because it is made up language but because words are broken up into the smallest sounds. Although there are 26 letters in the English Alphabet – there are 44 phonemes – or sounds made by these letters. Our children are taught to decode these sounds so that they can start to read (decode) and spell (encode) at the same time. Our children, from Nursery to Year 2, have a dedicated time, each day, specifically dedicated to the teaching of phonics. This is in addition to listening to children read and reading to our children so that we immerse them in literature from an early age.
There are many recognised schemes for teaching phonics; the one that we use at Belvedere Infant School is: DFE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. All of our children follow this scheme and all adults in Early Years and Key Stage One have undertaken specific training to deliver this programme effectively.
Letters and Sounds is split into 6 phases and the programme finishes, for most children, at the end of the Autumn term, in Year 2. A Phonics screening check is carried out with all children nationally in the Summer Term of Year 1. Children who do not pass this screener in Year 1, have additional support to help them successfully pass in the summer Term of Year 2.
Teaching Early Reading – Nursery – Year 2 Autumn Term
Foundations for phonics in Nursery
We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:
- sharing high-quality stories and poems
- learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
- activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
- attention to high-quality language.
In the Spring Term, Nursery also begin to take part in phonic lessons where they continue to focus on phase 1 listening skills, as well as exposing the children to the 26 letters and sounds in the alphabet. These lessons are planned on a weekly cycle and ensure the children are well prepared to learn and consolidate grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.
Daily phonics lessons in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (Autumn term)
In these year groups, we teach phonics for 20/30 minutes a day and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised expectations of progress:
- Reception: are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
- Year 1: review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.
- Year 2: review phase 5 phonics (Autumn term)
In Year 2, children continue with the reading practise groups in the Autumn term. They then transition over to Accelerated Reader. If children are not secure with their phonics, they will continue with this practise.
Assessment of Phonics
Regular teacher assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.
- Assessment for learning is used:
- daily within class to identify children needing ‘Keep-up’ support
- weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.
- Summative assessment is used:
- every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan the ‘Keep-up’ support that they need.
Statutory assessment
Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.
Curriculum Documents
Phonics and Early Reading Policy
Reading
At Belvedere Infant School, we highly value reading. Not only as a crucial life skill but also as a skill that will bring pleasure and aid wellbeing. We aim to develop children who read frequently and enjoy reading for pleasure. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
There are three main skills that we aim to teach our children, during their time with us: Fluency, Comprehension and word recognition. Although three very different skills, all are needed to become a fluent competent reader.
Our aim is to make our children readers who are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary and be resilient to enjoy challenging texts by using the skills of reading they are taught. We actively encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose. As children progress through our school, they build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
Nursery, Reception and Key Stage 1 classes enjoy and participate in story time sessions regularly.
Each class has a welcoming and well equipped book corner with a range of texts to meet the ability of each child in the class. The school library enables the children to experience an even wider range of texts and self select books for pleasure to share at home and to understand library skills.
As part of home reading, children should be selecting and reading a book appropriate to their level at least 3 times a week. We encourage parents/carers to hear their child read unless they are at a level where the pupils can assess their own reading. Feedback on home reading is made by parents/carers or pupils within the Home Reading Records.
In the early stages of school, reading is taught primarily through phonics, using the programme ‘DFE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme.’. This is supported by Reading Practice sessions 3 times a week where children enjoy and discuss books in a group, as well as regular home reading. Once fluent, in Year 2, pupils learn more about the comprehension and analytical aspects of reading, with continued reading sessions, as well as whole class book focuses during the English sessions. We have many exciting reading events throughout the year, for example trips to the local library, visiting authors and dressing up for World Book Day.
Reading, at Belvedere Infant School, is one of our key priorities.
Early Reading – Synthetic Phonics
When children join our school, in Nursery, they begin to learn about sounds around them and learn about stories and the pleasure of reading. In Reception, they begin to use synthetic phonics to learn to read words. The name Synthetic Phonics is used – not because it is made up language but because words are broken up into the smallest sounds. Although there are 26 letters in the English Alphabet – there are 44 phonemes – or sounds made by these letters. Our children are taught to decode these sounds so that they can start to read (decode) and spell (encode) at the same time. Our children, from Nursery to Year 2, have a dedicated time, each day, specifically dedicated to the teaching of phonics. This is in addition to listening to children read and reading to our children so that we immerse them in literature from an early age.
There are many recognised schemes for teaching phonics; the one that we use at Belvedere Infant School is: DFE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. All of our children follow this scheme and all adults in Early Years and Key Stage One have undertaken specific training to deliver this programme effectively.
Letters and Sounds is split into 6 phases and the programme finishes, for most children, at the end of the Autumn term, in Year 2. A Phonics screening check is carried out with all children nationally in the Summer Term of Year 1. Children who do not pass this screener in Year 1, have additional support to help them successfully pass in the summer Term of Year 2.
Please click here to access the parents page of the website: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Teaching Early Reading – Nursery – Year 2 Autumn Term
Foundations for phonics in Nursery
We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:
- sharing high-quality stories and poems
- learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
- activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
- attention to high-quality language.
Teaching reading: Reading practise sessions from Reception to Year 2 (Autumn term)
We teach our children to read through reading practise sessions. These:
- are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six children.
- use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids on pages 11–20 of ‘Application of phonics to reading’.
- are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.
Each reading practise session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practise sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:
- decoding
- prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
- comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.
In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.
Daily ‘Keep-up’ lessons ensure every child learns to read
Any child who needs additional practise has daily ‘keep-up’ support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up lessons match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
Home reading
- A decodable reading practise book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family.
- ‘Reading for pleasure’ books also go home for parents to share and read to children.
- An e book that matches the book children use in the ‘reading practise’ sessions is allocated to children’s e library to read at home
Teaching Reading from Year 2 Spring term
Once the phonics programme of study is completed, our children continue to develop their reading skills, and love of reading, through a range of strategies.
A teacher’s main objective is establishing the requisite skills, including modelling and questioning, introducing new vocabulary and encouraging children to infer or ‘read between the lines’. As language matures and increases, their ability to ‘create a picture’, and in some cases, fill the background knowledge required to become competent in comprehension, is key.
The more a child gains from the content of a book, the more they will develop their inference and deduction skills, transferring this knowledge to future books.
In addition, we actively encourage and monitor our children’s independent reading.
CUSP Reading and Writing
As well as all of the wonderful opportunities already mentioned, from Autumn 2023, children in Key Stage 1 will use the CUSP scheme to form their English lessons which have been carefully mapped to ensure full coverage and progression from one year group to the next. CUSP has a strong focus on skills needed to ensure that our children become confident and compitent readers and writers.
Within their writing lessons children will cover a range of themes and genres while focusing on developing specific skills and within their reading lessons, children will have a suite of core texts that will form the depth study for the academic year. These texts represent a promise from the school to every pupil that it serves of the literature that it is committed to studying throughout a pupil’s school journey. These texts have been mapped carefully to ensure a breadth of experiences, authors, texts and themes is addressed across the Primary years.
Below you will find an overview of both our reading and writing curriculum for years 1 and 2.
Curriculum Documents
Reading Rationale 22-23
Reading and Writing Overview
Writing
From Nursery through to year 2, high quality, motivating texts are used by the class teachers as a basis for children’s writing. The children are exposed to many different genres of writing and skills are developed in order to write independently at length. Alongside this, basic skills are taught which focus on the key skills for writing – Vocabulary, Conjunctions, Openers and Punctuation. Regularly across a term, in Key Stage 1, following a progression of sessions of input and practice, children have a chance to show off the skills learnt more independently. In the Early Years, mark-making and writing opportunities form part of everyday provision, both indoors and outdoors.
CUSP Reading and Writing
As well as all of the wonderful opportunities already mentioned, from Autumn 2023, children in Key Stage 1 will use the CUSP scheme to form their English lessons which have been carefully mapped to ensure full coverage and progression from one year group to the next. CUSP has a strong focus on skills needed to ensure that our children become confident and compitent readers and writers.
Within their writing lessons children will cover a range of themes and genres while focusing on developing specific skills and within their reading lessons, children will have a suite of core texts that will form the depth study for the academic year. These texts represent a promise from the school to every pupil that it serves of the literature that it is committed to studying throughout a pupil’s school journey. These texts have been mapped carefully to ensure a breadth of experiences, authors, texts and themes is addressed across the Primary years.
Below you will find an overview of both our reading and writing curriculum for years 1 and 2.
Curriculum Documents
Writing curriculum Rationale 22-23
Reading and Writing Overview
Belvedere Junior School
Phonics
We are decoders
At Belvedere Junior School we understand the relationship between the sounds of spoken language, and the letters and graphemes of written language. We use phonics as the first strategy to help children learn to read. We learn that phonemes are ‘a sound’ and that graphemes are ‘a sound written down’. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme to learn to blend sounds together to say, read and write new and unfamiliar words with confidence. Please click here to access the parents page of the website: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Phonics
At Belvedere Junior School we understand the relationship between the sounds of spoken language, and the letters and graphemes of written language. We use phonics as the first strategy to help children learn to read. We learn that phonemes are ‘a sound’ and that graphemes are ‘a sound written down’. Research shows that teaching Phonics in a structured and systematic way is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. Almost all children who receive good teaching of Phonics will learn the skills they need to decipher new and unfamiliar words.
At Belvedere Junior School Phonics in the Early Years is taught on a daily basis and follows the DFE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme. Children are taught the skills for segmenting and blending words and are introduced to new phonemes as part of a systematic synthetic approach. The teaching of Phonics continues in Years 1 and 2 as children are introduced to alternative graphemes, lesser known sounds and begin to learn some of the more complicated spelling rules.
At the end of Year 1, children are required to sit the Phonics Screening Check to assess their ability to segment and blend words. Children are presented with 40 words – a mixture of real and pseudo words and they are expected to apply their Phonics knowledge to read the words. If children are unsuccessful in Year 1 they have the opportunity to retake the test in Year 2. Intervention groups are set up for those children requiring additional support with their Phonics learning and this additional support will continue in Key Stage 2 if necessary.
Phonics in KS2
We use Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme to support children requiring additional practice with phonics and reading. This programme mirrors the core Little Wandle programme and has been carefully designed for children aged 7 and above to catch up quickly.
Please click here to access the parents’ page of the website: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/
Reading
Cross-Curricular Literacy Opportunities
We teach the full National Curriculum for English. The skills that children are taught in Literacy underpin all other subjects. They enable pupils to communicate and express themselves in all areas of their work. Teachers will always make cross-curricular links wherever appropriate and will plan for pupils to apply the skills, knowledge and understanding that they have acquired during Literacy to other areas of the curriculum.
We are readers
At Belvedere Junior School we believe that reading is central to a child’s understanding of the school curriculum and is of vital importance in life. We will develop a love and appreciation of reading which will stay with children for life. We will use good reading materials and resources to provide a breadth and range of reading material in school.
Teachers in Key Stage 2 regularly share a range of narrative and non-narrative texts with the whole class.
Each class has a book corner. As part of home reading, children should be selecting and reading a book appropriate to their level. We encourage parents/carers to hear their child read unless they are at a level where the pupils can assess their own reading. Feedback on home reading is made by parents/carers or pupils within the Home Reading Records.
Whole Class CUSP reading sessions take place for 30 minutes each day. Children who require additional support with reading normally receive more regular opportunities with another adult.
Writing
We are writers
Children at Belvedere Junior School are creative and imaginative writers. They will have many opportunities throughout the week to write, edit and improve. We follow CUSP reading, writing and spelling programmes. https://www.unity-curriculum.co.uk/more-information/primary/#reading&writing
Cross-Curricular Literacy Opportunities
We teach the full National Curriculum for English. The skills that children are taught in Literacy underpin all other subjects. They enable pupils to communicate and express themselves in all areas of their work. Teachers will always make cross-curricular links wherever appropriate and will plan for pupils to apply the skills, knowledge and understanding that they have acquired during Literacy to other areas of the curriculum.
Spelling
Cross-Curricular Literacy Opportunities
We teach the full National Curriculum for English. The skills that children are taught in Literacy underpin all other subjects. They enable pupils to communicate and express themselves in all areas of their work. Teachers will always make cross-curricular links wherever appropriate and will plan for pupils to apply the skills, knowledge and understanding that they have acquired during Literacy to other areas of the curriculum.
Vocabularly/SPAG
A good spelling programme gradually builds pupils’ spelling vocabulary therefore, when children enter Key Stage 2 they will have daily CUSP spelling lessons.
In Year 6 children are required to take a ‘Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar’ test. We endeavour to prepare children for this test as early as possible and therefore make spelling and grammar a key priority in all curriculum areas.
