The Leaders for the Communication, Language & Literacy (CLL) Domain are Leanne Ward (KS2) and Paige Merrick (EYFS & KS1).

The CLL policy is available on the policies page.

The Teaching of Early Reading

Phonics

EYFS/KS1:     

At West Monkton we teach Phonics through a whole class teaching programme, ‘Bug Club Phonics’. Across Reception and KS1, Phase 2 to Phase 5 of the phonics programme is delivered, where children receive a 20–30-minute, daily Phonics lesson. During each lesson, there is a clear focus on the learning intention, and a consistent approach to learning phonemes and graphemes, and the skills of segmenting and blending. Pupils’ phonic knowledge development and associated skills are fundamental to the teaching of early Reading and Writing.

Every child in Reception and KS1, has access to their Active Learn, Bug Club Phonics account, where they can practice and apply the skills they have learnt during the lessons at home. On their accounts they will have access to activities and games, as well as a selection of eBooks. Additionally, pupils will bring home a fully decodable phonics book, which is closely matched to individuals ability to further aid development.

Pupils who require additional support, receive phonics interventions that are focused on supporting the specific aspect of phonics that learners need the most support with. This is supported by our termly phonics assessments, and ongoing daily formative assessments in every lesson.

KS2:

Children in KS2, particularly in Years 3 and 4, will continue to receive targeted phonics support in small groups. The Bug Club Phonics programme is used to support the teaching of these intervention groups, and they continue to have access to fully decodable phonics books.

Reading

At West Monkton, we use the Scarborough Reading Rope model to underpin how we teach reading. This clearly demonstrates how the strands of 'Word Recognition' and Language Comprehension' are interwoven. We recognise that both decoding (the ability to translate written words into the sounds of spoken language) and comprehension (the ability to understand the meaning of the language being read) skills are necessary for confident and competent reading, but neither is sufficient on its own. At West Monkton, children will have a range of wider language and literacy experiences to develop their understanding of written texts in all their forms.

 ‘Reading Rope’ diagram from Peggy McCardle, Hollis S Scarborough and Hugh W Catts:

‘Predicting, Explaining and Preventing Children’s Reading Difficulties’, 

Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 16:4 (2001)

Throughout our school, teachers use a high-quality book as a learning stimulus for every cross-curriculum unit. These texts are linked and enhance knowledge and understanding across different domains, particularly  STEM and Place and Time. When working with the chosen texts, teachers use the objectives from National Curriculum 2014 and content domains developed by Somerset Literacy Network, which focus on prediction, understanding vocabulary, finding answers in the text, using inference and summarising key information. 

Teaching focuses on developing pupil’s competence in word reading  and comprehension to allow children to become confident readers, as demonstrated in the model above. The teaching of skills will vary between the two, this is carried out through small groups as well as whole class teaching of reading.

Whole Class Reading

Children are given opportunities to listen to, read, answer questions and comment on, books and stories during whole class sessions. These are based on high-quality/unit related texts.  Teachers and pupils share the text, with the teacher modelling as an expert reader through questioning and supports pupils with drawing out the key elements of the content.

Group Reading

Group-reading sessions (word reading and comprehension) take place daily in KS1. In LKS2 (Y3& 4), pupils are in a small group with a teacher, this is a minimum of twice a half-term and once a half-term in UKS2 (Y5&6). This allows children to become embedded in a text, promotes a love of reading and  builds on linguistic knowledge (in particular vocabulary and grammar). Teachers select texts that cover a range of reading genres that support and challenge children’s reading capabilities.

These small group reading sessions always follow the same principle:

1. Pre-reading of the text (independent or as a collective)

2. Group-led session, during which in depth discussion of the text place, such as detailed examination of the character, language and writing. As part of this process, children learn to use inference, prediction and justification skills.

3. Independent Comprehension, which allows children to think carefully about the text by answering comprehension questions linked to the reading objectives discussed in class.

Reading at Home

In the EYFS, KS1 and for some pupils identified children in KS2, children are given phonetically driven books to supplement their phonics work in class as well as plot driven books to support their comprehension. This is in addition to the importance given to the ongoing use of the school library and class bookshelves, which all aim to promote their enjoyment of reading. 

In Y2 and the whole of KS2, we are also using Oxford Reading Buddy. This is a digital reading service to develop comprehension and encourage a love of reading. It matches pupils with books at the right level and tracks performance across hundreds of Oxford’s print and digital books through expertly written comprehension quizzes. These assess the children’s understanding of a text to enable individual progression. Quiz results are reported back to teachers so that we can see where your child might need more help and support.