Purpose of study – Taken from the National Curriculum
English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others, and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.
What your child will learn
The teaching of English includes the development of Reading. English also includes speaking and listening in all its modes. It underpins the school curriculum by developing children’s abilities to speak, listen, read and write for a wide range of purposes; using language to learn and communicate, to think, to explore and organise.
Phonics and Early Reading
Children at the Weston Federation begin their reading journey in Nursery, and this continues throughout their years, across both schools. Children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive phonics lessons from the ‘Monster Phonics’ DfE validated scheme. Children are then assessed at the end of year 1, using the phonics screening check. Some children may need extra support to complete their phonics and early reading education in Year 3 and onwards too.
How your child is assessed in Reading
At the end of Key Stage 1 (Year 2) and Key Stage 2 (Year 6), your children are assessed against a national, standardised set of criteria called the Teacher Assessment Frameworks. Click on the links below to see these:
Key Stage 1: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-assessment-frameworks-at-the-end-of-key-stage-1
Key Stage 2: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-assessment-frameworks-at-the-end-of-key-stage-2
Children in Foundation Stage are assessed by their teacher using the Early Years Framework. This document contains the criteria for what your child is working towards in each milestone. Click on the link below to see this:
Foundation Stage: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/974907/EYFS_framework_-_March_2021.pdf
Phonics and Early Reading
Children at the Weston Federation begin their reading journey in Nursery, and this continues throughout their years, across both schools. Children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive phonics lessons from the ‘Monster Phonics’ DfE validated scheme. Some children may need extra support to complete their phonics and early reading education in Year 3 and onwards too.
For more information about the Monster Phonics scheme we use to teach phonics and early reading, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJsIpcXdI7Y
For more information about how we teach phonics to your child, and what you can do to support them, watch this video: https://youtu.be/7sYzGJ1LeDQ
To see how the different sounds (phonemes) are pronounced, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRoFpvC0yn0
How your child is assessed in Phonics
Children are assessed in two different ways in phonics and early reading at the Weston Federation. Firstly, teachers assess your children’s understanding of the different sounds (phonemes) and ways of writing sounds down (graphemes) in the classroom. This is done as part of our normal teaching sequence and is not a formal test. Pupils will work 1-1 with an adult to identify how much they know. This helps us to understand how your child is progressing and supports teachers in adapting their teaching to meet the needs of pupils.
At the end of Year 1, pupils will sit a more formal phonics screening assessment. This is still completed 1-1 with a familiar teacher, but is in a quiet place, and forms part of our final assessment. This is a list of 40 words, some real and some made up, that your children try to decode using phonic strategies. The nonsense words have a picture of an alien next to them, so your children know that these are not real words. The phonic screening check paper is sent out by the Standards and Testing Agency, so the words are different each year. Usually, the pass mark for this is around 32 out of 40, but this can change. There are previous examples of phonic screen papers available, but try not to complete these at home, as we sometimes use these as practice papers in school. If your child does not pass the screening at the end of year 1, they will have the chance to try again at the end of year 2. Pupils who do not pass at the end of year 2 will still receive phonics support in year 3 and beyond, as necessary.
For more information about the phonics screening process, follow this link: https://youtu.be/7sYzGJ1LeDQ
National Curriculum Programme of Study
The document below (taken from the Department for Education) describes what your child should learn in Reading over their primary education.
Subject Aims
There are 7 aims from the National Curriculum relating to English. The 3 relating to Reading are as follows:
- read easily, fluently and with good understanding
- develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
- acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
Click here to see the full document of subject aims – Subject aims for the whole curriculum