Phonics is taught daily in KS1 through letters and sounds. Children are taught a number of sounds per week through daily revision activities, teach, practise and apply. Quick revision activities start the sessions where children are given an opportunity to recall past learning before identifying a new sound. Quick burst activities help maintain pace of the sessions e.g. flashcards, games. All children will have the opportunity to hear the sounds, identify them in written format and begin to write them in their own sentences. Decoding is hugely important in KS1 which is why we have purchased a whole new set of texts to ensure all children have access to phonetically decodable texts. By allowing talk and listening early on, we are giving children the vocab they need to build into their own reading.

To ensure that children are getting opportunities to develop their reading, they will be sent home with a phonetically decodable text that is linked to the sound that they are learning in class that week. This will provide them with the opportunity to further practise sounds taught and apply them. They will also have a short worksheet matched to their learning and book to complete for further consolidation. They are also sent home with further texts that are linked to their current level of reading to have as a read for pleasure book. These books are changed weekly and ensure that children have sufficient challenge.

Children are monitored half termly through Target Tracker which assesses their current recognition of sounds per each phase. We also assess the children regularly through phonics sessions and on target tracker to identify tricky words.

Any children identified as falling behind are placed into smaller phonics groups. Groups are regularly monitored to ensure that they do not continue to fall behind. Additional time is also sought to ensure that they read 1:1 with teacher/TA to develop those reading skills. Interventions are put into place immediately.

Alongside phonics sessions, children in year1 &2 complete regular guided reading sessions where the focus is fluency and comprehension of a text. Class teachers listen to the children read in small groups, monitoring expression and intonation. Any child identified as non-fluent should receive additional 1:1 support for reading.

By summer term in Year 2, children are prepared for Accelerated reader if they are reading a white level book or beyond. This is to familiarise themselves with the scheme and challenge them further.

All children in year 1 should be secure in phase 5 before moving into year 2, where they will focus upon spelling rules of phase 6 and no nonsense spelling in preparation for the end of year assessment.