Phonics and Reading
Our Nursery pupils receive a daily 10 minute phonics session and work through Phase 1 of the 'Letters and Sounds' programme when the children are ready to do so (usually in the summer term prior to starting school). Within Phase 1, pupils focus on listening skills, segmenting and blending in preparation for reading letters and learning letter sounds within Phase 2 when they start school in reception.
Within Reception and Year 1 children access a focussed daily programme of phonics through the 'Letters and Sounds' programme. The children have a 25 minute lesson each day and work within phases according to their ability. Lessons are led by both teachers and teaching assistants.
Due to high quality teaching, children in Year 2 generally need less of a focus and receive a balance of phonics and guided reading across the week. Children then have a greater opportunity to put their reading skills into practice. However, if pupils need additional support the children are able to receive this on a daily basis either as an intervention or within a small group.
At Woore we use the book banding system where books are colour coded according to their difficulty. Books are phonetically decodable and include a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.