Reading and Phonics
Reading at Ripley Infants School
At Ripley Infant School our reading curriculum inspires wonder and imagination by teaching our children the essential knowledge and skills that they will need now and in their future. Through vocabulary rich texts, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry, children will be taught the basic skills they need in order to be able to continue to develop their reading with enjoyment and understanding. All children will be encouraged to read widely to appreciate a love of reading and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.
Click here for the Year 1 text overview
Click here for the Year 2 text overview
Phonics: Little Wandle - Letters and Sounds Revised
Every child receives a good quality 30 minutes phonics lesson five times a week. We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. It consist of 5 phases for teaching phonics from Reception with the aim of children becoming fluent readers. This scheme ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
Support materials and videos that you may find useful when helping your child with phonics at home can be accessed here.
You can download our Information leaflet for parents here
An information powerpoint for parents about the teaching of Phonics can be found here
Phonics Books
In school we have arranged all books into different phonics phases to ensure children are reading books at their current phonics ability. We have categorised them into each phase and phase 2, 3 and 4 each have their own challenge book as we want to encourage children to be challenged and to use the text to help them work out what a particular word says.
As your child learns more phonics sounds and develops more confidence, they will be moved onto the next set of phonics books when they are ready. We want to encourage children to reread for meaning and fluency so please be patient if they have stayed on a particular phase for a while. When children are secure in phase 5 phonics, they will be moved onto Turquoise book band and carry on working through the different coloured book bands.
Home Reading
All children have a reading record log that they take home for parents and staff to record when they have been listened to. Children are expected to read at least 3 times a week. It can be recorded in their reading log or on Tapestry due to Covid. When a child reads 3 times a week, a hole punch will be punched onto their Bookworm Loyalty card. When the card is complete, children can choose a brand new book to take home and keep. As reading is a life long skill, reading at home will help your child to become a confident and fluent reader.
Children will take home a book they can read fluently with sounds they have only been taught, a ‘challenge’ book to challenge children to see a range of words based at their current reading age and a reading for pleasure book. The reading for pleasure book will be chosen by the children during their library slot and some children may need support and help when reading their library book.
Please click here to view Spring 1 2022 newsletter about borrowing books from our library.
Reading in the classroom
Listening to stories
Whole class reading
In Y2 a vocabulary rich text is chosen for children to read and learn a range of different reading comprehension strategies including retrieval, inference and prediction. Children will hear teachers use appropriate tone and expression when reading to encourage children to apply it in their own reading. Children are encouraged to use their prior experiences and knowledge to help find answers to different questions. Poetry and non-fiction are also read during a term in whole class reading sessions.
Little Wandle Guided Reading
Reception and Y1 will take part in reading practice sessions 3 times a week. This will focus on three key reading skills – decoding, prosody and comprehension. This will allow children to have quality practice sessions which is closely matched to their phonic ability.
Book corners
Each classroom has a dedicated reading area including a range of different texts, for example fiction and non-fiction books, poetry books and magazines. Children can access and choose books from their reading area at different points during the school day. Each book corner is different and children love reading on their own or with a friend in our cosy reading areas.
Library
Last year we applied for the Foyles Foundation Library Grant and gratefully received some money to update our library. We have updated our books and reading areas in our library to create a fun and welcoming environment for children to read. Hopefully we will be able to open up our library for parents to visit before and after school.
Supporting your child at home
You'll find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics and reading below:
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zgkw2hv
https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html
https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds
https://www.education.com/games/word-patterns/
https://www.letters-and-sounds.com/
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips/