Reading and Phonics
Phonics
Sounds are the building blocks of spelling and reading. At St. Margaret’s we place real importance on the use of phonics as pupils move through EYFS, KS1 and beyond.
We use:
- Phonics Bug in EYFS
- Phonics Bug in Year 1 and 2
- Phonics Bug is also used higher up the school where required.
If you wish to find out more about phonics, please follow the link below to the Oxford Owl website. There is advice about how to help your child when they are learning to read and audio guidance with how to correctly say the 44 phonic sounds.
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/learn-to-read-phonics/
Reading Schemes
The reading books the children take home work alongside the phonics scheme used in school. The children will read books which are phonics based and wholly decodable. As they progress with their phonics they will progress through the phonic stages. We have a consistent phonic reading scheme to keep the children engaged and motivated to read. We use the Pearson’s Phonics Bug series of books. The children will be given books to take home each week. If you wish to read extra books with your child, you can also access e-books with Pearson’s Phonics Bug Independent. There is a huge range of books here to read with your child which progresses up to Lime level. In order to access these books, please follow the link below.
https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0
When the children have consolidated the graphemes covered in each stage of reading books, they may advance on to Oxford Reading Tree readers, which are not entirely decodable. This will enable a child to practise recognising ‘tricky words’ which are not yet decodable.
Reading at Home
One of the biggest factors which can help pupils to develop all round academic ability is to share quality reading time with an adult. The guide in the downloads below may be useful to achieve this.
Downloads
The booklets below will give you more information which may support your child’s learning:
Reading at Key Stage Two
Once the children enter Key Stage Two, they will still be able to access reading books appropriate for their reading level such as the Oxford Reading Tree books which progress up to Stage 16, Book Band Dark Red level.
When your children are ready, they may advance to supported reading. This means that the class teacher will help and support their choices from the school library. We have two very well -stocked libraries in Lower and Upper Key Stage Two. They both have a huge range of up to date fiction and non- fiction books.
At St.Margaret’s, we want the children to foster a love of reading which is why we ensure that there are a wide variety of books that will appeal to a wide range of readers. We also ensure that the children are involved in helping to select books for the school library so that it reflects their interests and the genres they enjoy reading.
Book Lists and Recommendations
We also have recommended book lists that are appropriate for each year group in the guides below:
These links also take you to some excellent websites which provide useful guidance about the best new books and book recommendations organised by genre
- https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/our-recommendations/best-new-books/
- https://www.booksfortopics.com/year-5
In Key Stage Two, we also have online books for the children to read. The children have access to Fiction Express which is an exciting live reading resource. They are able to access hundreds of e-books which are organised into three levels of difficulty. There are quizzes so that the children can check their understanding of the text they are reading. Each child is given an individual username and password for the site by their class teacher at the beginning of each new academic year. The website can be accessed using the following link:
https://en.fictionexpress.com/
Children may also access a range of online books through Oxford Owl. These are Oxford Reading Tree books and have books ranging from Level 1 ( Pink) to Level 16 ( Dark Red). They can access these books through their class log in and password on the following website:
We would also encourage children to use their local library for books. You can also access online books through your local library service through using the Borrow Box app. This provides free access to a huge range of fiction and non -fiction books for a range of ages.
