Phonics and Reading

What do we do about reading and phonics?

At ARH we are extremely passionate about reading. We feel every pupil deserves to be inspired and motivated to read. Our curriculum is centred around books as we follow a Novel-Based approach with novels linked to our topics. This ensures that children have the opportunity to study a variety of texts which are progressive in nature.

Phonics and Reading

Throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, pupils are taught phonics explicitly by following Letters and Sounds. For more information regarding phonics, please see our Phonics Policy.

Reading in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2

As the children progress through school, the main focus moves towards enriching comprehension skills. We are passionate about not only teaching children to decode the words on the page, but gain a deeper understanding of what they are reading.  Pupils in Years 1 - 6 have a weekly explicit reading lesson alongside Reading Skills Sessions. 

Guided Reading has proved to be one of the most successful strategies in drawing out pupils’ knowledge and understanding of various texts and helps to promote a love of reading for pleasure. We use this approach as an intervention with children who are identified as needing extra support. This approach is used alongside explicit reading lessons, shared and modelled reading. 

In Year 5 we have a pupil premium funded intervention called 'Premiere League Football Reading Challenge.' These sessions are dynamic and engaging, particularly for the boys, as we are fortunate to have activities delivered by Leicester City Football Club Education Coaches. Pupils receive match tickets for their achievements and progress which motivates pupils to develop a positive approach to reading.

For more information regarding how reading is taught, please see our Reading Policy.

How to help with your child’s reading at home:

We encourage all of our pupils to read at home and to log evidence of this in their home reading journal. At the back of the journal, you will find some useful questions that you could use when reading with your child. These types of questions help to strengthen their understanding and make reading a much more enjoyable and interactive experience! If your child reads independently, you may find some of these suggestions valuable:

• Can your child sum up in one sentence what they have just read?

• Could they make a comic strip of what they have read?

• Can they create a quiz based upon the book they have just read?

• Can they write a book review, recommending it to a friend?

Previously, we have run parent and carer workshops after school to showcase strategies you can use at home to enhance your child’s reading and how they can make good progress in this subject.

You can find our reading and phonics policies by clicking on the link below:

To see the phonics actions and sounds we use in school, please click on the link below:

Phonics at Home

Please see activity sheets below to use at home with your child in order to practice the skills of segmenting and blending words and sentences using the sounds that your child has been learning at school. 

In order to read a word we use the strategy of:

1. Detect the sounds
2. Segment it (Robot arms)
3. Blend it together

In order to write a word we use the strategy of:

1. Say the word
2. Segment it (Robot arms)
3. Write the sounds you hear

For more ways to support your child with reading at home, please see here:

BookTrust: Getting children reading | BookTrust 

Hungry Little Minds – Simple fun, activities for kids aged 0 – 5 (campaign.gov.uk)

10 top tips for parents to support children to read - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

Activities for babies, toddlers and kids: Fun games to help development and bonding - BBC Tiny Happy People