Intent

At The Orion we believe that reading is the most important skill you can teach a child in order for them to succeed and have excellent life chances.  All staff are determined that every child will learn to read.  We are dedicated in providing a language rich environment where learning to read and enjoying reading are paramount.

As of January 2022 we teach reading through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Programme. This is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme which starts in Nursery and Reception.

Implementation

In Nursery there is a strong focus on Communication, Language and Literacy. High quality language provision includes sharing stories and poems, learning nursery and action rhymes and activities to develop focused listening and attention skills. Children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences and blending.

In Reception children have a 30 minutes daily phonics lesson which will begin early in the Autumn Term and three reading practice sessions a week focusing on the skills of decoding, prosody and comprehension.

In Y1 and Y2 children have twice daily phonics lessons up to 30 minutes in length and three reading practice sessions a week focusing on the skills of decoding, prosody and comprehension.

Home Reading/Champion Reader

The decodable reading practice book used in the reading sessions in class is taken home to ensure success is shared with parents. A reading for pleasure book also goes home once a week. Parents are informed about their children's progress throughout the year and we run workshops and information sessions at school to encourage and parents and skill them how to support their children with reading development in the best way.

Impact

Children are assessed daily to monitor progress and a summative assessment takes place every 6 weeks for all.  Y1 children have a Phonics Screening Check in the summer term. Children who score below the required level will retake the test in Y2. Due to the pandemic Y2 children sat the Phonics Screening Check in November 2021 (instead of at the end of Y1).

Additional reading support and practice and phonics teaching is planned and implemented for any child identified who needs this.

Information for Parents

Our Early Years Parents are invited to a phonics meeting in October to understand more about how their child is taught to read at school and how they can best support them at home. Want to recap? See links below.