Learning to Read
At Gorse Covert Primary, we believe that being able to read fluently is the route to achieving well in all areas of the curriculum. We aim to support our children on this important journey so that they also develop life-long readers who have a love of reading.
Learning to read begins with our daily phonics lessons where the children begin to blend and segment sounds to decode words. To complement phonics we also have weekly reading practice sessions and individual books that are taken home to read. These books follow our book bands and are from a range of reading schemes such as Big Cat Phonics, Bug Club, Oxford Reading Tree and Treetops.
Our phonics teaching follows the DfE Approved Phonics scheme Little Wandle.
For further information on letter formation and pronunciation of sounds taught in Reception, see the information sheets below. There is one sheet for each half term. Sounds are introduced in the order you will see on each half termly sheet.
ASSESSMENT
Each child will be assessed at the end of each half term. Ongoing assessment also takes places to identify children who need either individual or group keep-up. Action is taken swiftly to ensure no children fall behind.
PHONIC SCREENING TEST
In Year 1 your child will sit the phonic screening test. This test is made up of 20 real words and 20 pseudo words. The children will often call them nonsense words. The children will use their knowledge of the graphemes taught to read these words. Here is a short video explained about the pseudo words.
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/