English
English Intent
At Chellaston Infant School, reading is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that reading is the golden thread that ties our English curriculum together; reading is the gateway to accessing the curriculum leading to a lifelong love of learning.
Through an engaging curriculum, we promote positive attitudes towards the foundations of learning to read. At Chellaston Infant School, we follow a sequenced and progressive Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) Scheme that is research informed and allows children to acquire the building blocks to lifelong skills. Children then nurture these foundation skills through an inclusive approach to reading, which focuses on developing fluency and prosody. Quality, core texts are used to support the teaching of writing to ensure the children have access to rich vocabulary through diverse texts, which cultivates empathy and a deeper understanding of the world.
We are determined to ensure that children leave Chellaston Infant School as articulate, capable writers with a love and passion for reading.
Reading
At Chellaston Infant School, we use FFT “Success for All” Phonics (a validated scheme) to teach phonics. This is used daily from the beginning of Reception, enabling children to make a smooth transition from Reception to Year 1.
Daily lesson plans cover all the main Grapheme–Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs) and Common Exception Words (CEW) to provide children with the phonic knowledge and skills required for success in reading and writing.
Teaching Sequence
We have very clear expectations about what sounds will be taught and when, alongside which common exception words will also be taught. These are then matched to your child’s reading book (based on the phonic knowledge they have secured) in order for them to continue to practise these skills when reading (both at home and in school).
Teachers will assess which phonics skills have been mastered by children at each phase. Children’s interactions with books and other texts will give teachers a good indication of how well they are able to apply their phonics knowledge and skills to reading.
From Year 2, children build on their phonics knowledge by developing their spelling skills through the use of FFT’s Jungle Club.
Shared Reading Lessons
To ensure our children become fluent readers, shared reading sessions teach children how to read (using their phonic knowledge to date) by modelling fluency and prosody. This is achieved through strategies such as: choral reading and echo reading. The use of repeated reading eases children’s cognitive load, which allows them to develop their comprehension skills, alongside fluency.
It is important that children can apply their phonic skills to reading. Children have a daily reading session, based on the phonic skills they have been taught. We use fully decodable texts to give children opportunity to use their new skills.
Supporting your child at home:
In order to support your child at home, we recommend that they read at least 4x a week with an adult to practice their reading skills.
Teachers in Reception classes will update the class dojo page to reflect the week’s phonics learning so you can reinforce this at home.
All year groups are also given a link to the e-book, which children have been working on in lessons, so you can share a story with your child.
Further information to our Phonics Scheme is available on the FFT Success for All website:
Videos to support phonics - FFT
The Powerpoint presentation below explains how our phonics and reading scheme works.