Early Reading
About Phonics and the schemes we use for phonics and reading at Prior’s Mill CE Primary
Phonics is a much debated educational approach to the teaching of reading and writing. Unlike many European languages, English is not a naturally phonic language. This means that you cannot always read a word as it sounds, which in may European languages is normal.
At Prior’s Mill all Early Years and Key Stage 1 pupils take part in a daily Phonics session. Our Phonetics scheme is the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme, teaching phases 1-6 according to ability. The programme meets the needs of all children using a multi-sensory and active approach. Jolly Phonics actions, prompts and songs are used when introducing new sounds to the children. This begins in Nursery.
The Government has introduced a Phonics Test for children in Year 1, which is either pass or fail on reading a set of words based on phonetic sounds, some real words and some made up. Looking at the outcomes, many excellent readers, reading at a high level, fail the test as they do not use pure phonetics in their approach to words.
Phonics is one useful tool in a range of tools we use to teach reading.
Reading Schemes at Priors Mill C of E Primary
At Prior’s Mill we use materials from reading schemes in a variety of ways. Children are introduced to basic sounds using the following schemes:
- Phonics Bug – these are introduced in Early Years when children have a secure phonic knowledge and are able to blend and segment words. These are fully de codable and are matched to the phonic phase children are working on.This is followed up with the well respected and challenging Oxford Reading Tree Scheme.Floppy Phonics – these books are mainly used in used in Key Stage 1. They are fully de codable and again are matched to phonics phase that the children are working on.
- Oxford Reading Tree – used to give the children breadth and variety in their reading. These books help children develop other strategies for reading, such as using contextual clues and developing sight vocabulary.
The Oxford Reading Tree Scheme is a colour coded scheme where books and the reading scheme are combined at several levels to provide a range of reading materials.
Please click on the following links to download further information:
