
Reading & EARLY READING

a vital skill that supports children’s learning across the whole curriculum.
At Shield Row Primary School, reading is promoted as an intrinsic part of teaching and learning.
The ability to read is not only the key to learning but it also has a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances.
As a school, we will ensure that our children are taught to read with fluency, accuracy and understanding through a variety of discreet and cross-curricular learning opportunities.
Above all, we want children in our school to become enthusiastic, independent and reflective readers.
We want our children to fall in love with reading so that it brings them pleasure and allows them to experience new things, discover new worlds and explore the emotions of others.
In EYFS and Key Stage One the children are taught to read and write following the ‘Letters and Sounds’ curriculum. This programme teaches children to decode (break down) words into their smallest units of sound (phonemes) systematically.
In the Early Years, teachers use actions and songs for each sound to help the children remember the letter shape, name and the sound it makes. This is particularly important for kinaesthetic learners (children who learn by ‘doing’).

Phonics Phases
Our phonics curriculum takes children through six Phases, with children typically moving through Phases 1-4 during Reception, and then onto Phase 5 and 6 throughout Year 1 and 2.
With lots of repetition and weekly development of skills, we find that we are able to really build confidence and challenge children at an appropriate level.
Phase 1
The focus is on listening and making sounds with mouths and bodies—e.g. environmental sounds, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and early letter recognition.
Phase 2
Each week, children learn single letters and their corresponding sounds in a useful order (e.g. SATPIN) so that they can begin to blend and segment short words.
Phase 3
Phase 3 introduces ‘friendly letters’ letters (where two letters make one sound, e.g. ai, oa, sh). Skills in blending and segmenting are further developed.
Phase 4
This phase is an opportunity to recap all Phase 2/3 sounds in a range of contexts. Children begin to read and write 2-syllable words and words where two sounds are close together (e.g. s-l-i-p / p-l-ay / f-r-igh-t).
Phase 5
Tackles the complexities of spelling in English and teaches children to explore alternative spellings and pronunciations for all sounds (e.g. all different spellings of /ay/). They will learn how to apply a ‘best bet’ rule (e.g. /oi/ in the middle, /oy/ at the end) and will begin reading and talking about suffixes.
Phase 6
Children begin to tackle grammatical rules for the spellings when writing tenses, adding suffixes and prefixes, contractions and strategies for spelling tricky words.
If you would like to find out more about Letters and Sounds visit their website here.
Phonics in Reception - Overview of Teaching
Phonics in Year 1- Overview of Teaching
We support children in using their phonics to support spelling from Reception to Year 6 using 6 different Phonics and Spelling Charts. Here is a sample of these resources:




Reading in Early Years
Reading is a high priority within Early Years and underpins everything we do. This includes making sure topics taught are built around a wide selection of books linked to children’s interests.
In Nursery, the importance of reading starts as links are established through the weekly ‘Lending Library’ where children can choose a book, with their adult, to take home for the week. These are accompanied by suggested activities which help to engage families with the books and have fun!
















Downloads
The download links below provide a wealth of information to help support your child's reading.
Bronze Level - Bronze Reading Certificate and Reading sticker
Silver Level - Silver Reading Certificate and Shield Row Primary bookmark
Gold Level - Gold Reading Certificate and Super Star Reader badge
Once their sticker chart is full, they will be able to visit the Reading Rewards Cabinet and select a book which will be gifted to them from school.



High Frequency words with highlighted tricky words
Overview of Letters and Sounds
OVERVIEW OF PHONICS IN RECEPTION
Phonics and spelling charts Reception to year 6
phonics information for parents
developing your child's reading skills
