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Reading

Early-reading begins the moment children start their journey at Manor Oak, with Foundations for Phonics being taught in our Nursery and leading into Phase 2 and 3 in Reception. A substantial amount of time is spent within phase 1 (Foundations for Phonics) to ensure that children have a strong foundation from which to build skills. These skills continue to develop throughout their school career. As well as this, children develop a love of reading that will prepare them for life.

Phonics & Reading - EYFS and KS1

In January 2022, we joined Little Wandle Letters & Sounds partnership, which provides explicit lesson plans and teaching formats from Phase 2 to Phase 5. As part of this, when children enter KS1, previous learning is reviewed as part of the phonics lesson, as well as introducing children to more complex words in phase 4 and alternative sounds within phase 5. During year 2, children continue their phonics learning, and are exposed to spelling rules and patterns, which further supports their reading ability.

As part of Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, we deliver 'keep up' interventions, for all children to address any misconceptions/difficulties following the phonics lesson.

Alongside these specific phonics lessons, within KS1, trained teaching assistants are assigned groups, with whom they read three times a week for half an hour. These reading lessons have a different focus each time: decoding, prosody and comprehension. The texts that children read, are aligned to their phonic ability. child.

Following the Phonic Check Assessment in year 1, any pupils not meeting the expected standard are quickly identified and further support is put into place.

Click here for more information on Little Wandle

Writing

Writing at Manor Oak begins with a focus on fine motor skills, which are key in building the muscles needed to become effective writers. This moves on to utilisation of phonic knowledge, to write letters and words that match their spoken sounds, which soon develops into composing and noting down simple sentences. Our focus on exposing children to as many familiar texts as possible, helps to ensure that children are able to remember and use some of the literary language.

Beginning within EYFS, 'Pathways to Write' developed by the Literacy Company, is used to provide stimulus for writing, as well as ensuring appropriate grammar and punctuation are being taught within each year group. This a mastery approach, whereby each unit of work builds commutatively on that which comes before it. Each lesson plan links to high-quality texts which are contained on the year group's long term plan. Appropriate differentiation is provided, particularly related to greater depth writers, seeking to expose these children to a wider variety of writing opportunities. Alongside this, children are taught to write to entertain and to inform, seeking to incorporate the necessary grammar, vocabulary and punctuation for this purpose.

Building on this strong start in EYFS and KS1, children within KS2 are taught using the Pathways to Write scheme, as well as to write for a greater range of purposes including: writing to discuss and writing to persuade, as well as those covered within KS1. By the end of key stage 2, the aim is that children are able to make deliberate choices within their writing according to the purpose and audience.

Independent editing is encouraged within writing lessons through the use of a green biro. As they write, particularly in KS2, children seek to make editing changes, as well as using differentiated editing checklists. Such checklists are used for longer pieces of writing to encourage children to take ownership and be familiar with the requirements for their writing. The children identify where they have used certain aspects of the checklist in their writing by numbering in the margin and use these to identify their own next steps.

Progression and Skills

Tier 2 Vocabulary Progression Overview EYFS and KS1 suggested reading list KS2 suggested reading list