Phonics Teaching - giving our children the best start

Reading and phonics teaching begins early at Cockshutt C of E Primary School. Nursery children begin learning the foundations for reading from the age of two. We have daily Phase One Letters and Sounds sessions where we play lots of fun, interactive, multi-sensory games. These help our skills progress from early listening and talking skills to being able to understand concepts, such as rhythm, rhyme and hearing initial sounds in words. Nursery children also enjoy a wide variety of stories and songs throughout the day (one to one and in groups). Our wide experience of stories and phonics from an early age result in fabulous storytellers who love reading and have a solid foundation for future learning. 

When children reach reception age, they are introduced to more complex sounds and begin to blend sounds together to read words. During the first few weeks at school, children will receive their first reading book. Initially, this will be a simple picture book. These encourage children to create their own narrative and make observations of the illustrations. They will then progress onto books with simple words which allow children the opportunity to practice the phonics skills they have learnt in class. As children’s reading skills develop, they will progress onto books with more complex sentences and, eventually, onto longer story books. To enable children’s reading progression, they have daily direct phonics teaching lessons. We use the Phonics Bug programme to teach Letters and Sounds in a fun and interactive way to Reception and Year One children; alongside a wide variety of games within the classroom throughout the day to embed children’s learning.

Book Banding Information

As your child begins to read they will progress through books that are suited to their reading ability. These reading books are graded by difficulty based on reading levels known as Book Bands. Each Book Band has its own colour.

To begin with these books may only have illustrations to allow your child to create their own story, words and sentences will then be progressively introduced.

Following reading assessments carried out regularly your child will be given a new reading book on a colour band based on their reading level. When they need to change their reading book they will then be allowed to choose another book themselves from the appropriate coloured band. This way they are given control of their own reading within a controlled range.

Once your child is assessed to be confident in this coloured band they will be moved onto the next colour.

Below are the reading strategies associated with each band.

Coloured Bands in order

Pink

• Locate title, open front cover, turn pages appropriately.
• Understand that left page comes before right.
• Understand that we read print from left to right.
• Match spoken word to printed word.
• Locate familiar word and use to check own reading.
• Use the meaning of the text.
• Use language patterns.
• Predict the story line and some vocabulary.

Red

• Locate and recall title.
• Be able to track words whilst reading them.
• Use known words to check and confirm reading.
• Repeat words, phrases or sentences to improve fluency.
• Begin to make predictions.

Yellow

• Follow print with eyes only, finger pointing only at points of difficulty.
• Take more note of punctuation to support the use of grammar.
• Note familiar words and use these to get unknown words e.g. Look-took.
• Search for information in print to predict, confirm or attempt new words

while reading.

• Predict in more detail.

Light Blue

• Moving through text attending to meaning, print and sentence flexibly
• Self correct more rapidly.
• Re-read to enhance fluency.
• Solve new words using print information along with attention to meaning.
• Manage a greater variety of text types.
• Discuss content of the text in a manner indicating precise understanding.

Green

• Read fluently with attention to punctuation.
• Manage effectively a growing variety of texts.
• Discuss and interpret character and plot more fully.

Orange

• Read longer phrases and more complex sentences.
• Identify and use a range of punctuation.
• Search for and use familiar syllables within words to read longer words.
• Infer meaning from text.

Turquoise

• Extract meaning from the text while reading with less dependence on

Illustration.

• Use punctuation and text layout to read with a greater range of expression.
• Sustain reading through longer sentence structures and paragraphs.
• Tackle more complex words.

Purple

• Look through a variety of texts with growing independence to predict

content, layout and story development.

• Read silently or quietly at a more rapid pace, taking note of punctuation and using it to keep track of longer sentences.
• Adapt to fiction, non – fiction or poetic language with growing flexibility.

Gold

• Look through a variety of texts with growing independence to predict

content, layout and story development.

• Read silently or quietly at a more rapid pace, taking note of punctuation and using it to keep track of longer sentences.
• Solve most unfamiliar words on the run.
• Adapt to fiction, non-fiction or poetic language with growing flexibility.

White

• Sustain interest in longer text, returning to it easily after break.
• Search for and find information in texts.
• Notice the spelling of unfamiliar words and relate to known words.
• Show increased awareness of vocabulary and precise meaning.
• Express reasoned opinions about what is read.

Lime

• Recognise text type and predict layout and general content.
• Take notes and devise ways to remember meaning and spelling of words.
• Investigate and identify the styles and voice of a range of different text.
• Investigate and identify the styles of a range of different text

types including plays, poetry, narrative and explanatory texts.

Grey/Dark Blue/Dark Red

• Develop comprehension skills including fact retrieval, inference and prediction.
• Use evidence from the text to support ideas.
• Begin to see links between themes and styles of writing.