Intent

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At Charlesworth, we believe that teaching phonics and early reading is vital for the development of key skills for life. Through the use of our new scheme 'Phonics Shed', we help children to develop their segmenting and blending skills, which are essential for reading success. We also focus on the development of comprehension skills, which enable our children to develop a deeper understanding of the text and to help to open up a world of imagination. Most importantly, we strive to develop a love of reading in all of our pupils, which will stay with them long after they have left our school.

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When looking to implement a new Phonics scheme it was vital to explore what expectations we had from any new scheme and how best it would fit the needs of all our children. We wanted a scheme that would support the children's development of key skills such as pronunciation, segmenting, blending, and spelling in an engaging and active way.  We researched a range of DFE approved Phonics schemes, including trialling some of them, before choosing 'Phonics Shed'.  Choosing 'Phonics Shed' meant that we can not only develop the key skills and knowledge within EYFS and KS1 but also this leads to a cohesion across school as we already used 'Spelling Shed' within KS2.

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Implementation

 

How Is the Phonics and Early Reading Curriculum Organised at Charlesworth?

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Phonics is taught in groups linked to the Phonics Phases of development.  The teachers and teaching assistants are highly effective in carrying out ongoing formative assessments to support children's learning and development.  We use the Phonics Shed scheme of work, including the matching reading books as the basis of our teaching but we also use supplementary resources and texts to support the breadth of understanding of our children.

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Phonics forms part of the extended provision within the EYFS curriculum and children are engaged in the use of phonics and early reading skills within their independent learning.

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Children are encouraged to develop a love of reading by immersing themselves in a Literacy rich environment. Children share books on a daily basis by both choosing books they want to read and listening to texts being read to them.  Children also engage in Paired/Share reading, Whole Class Guided Reading, Group Guided Reading and independent reading.  

We have a range of volunteers from the local community who support the children in learning the early reading skills as well as ongoing 1-1 support from the teachers and teaching assistants.

 

Impact

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How Phonics and Early Reading is Assessed at Charlesworth?

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Throughout EYFS and KS1 we carry out ongoing formative assessments in Phonics and Early Reading. These are then used to monitor which phase the children should be working at and if additional support is needed. For children needing additional support, we implement small group work using programs such as Nessy, or individualised Precision Teaching.

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End of term assessments are carried out to support the children to gain confidence ready for the Phonics Screening Test in Year One.

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Please click on the picture below to take you to our Phonics Scheme.                Please click on the picture below to share 

                                                                                                                                        the text.

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