Early Reading and Phonics
At Harris Primary School the children in Receptiona and Year 1 take part in daily phonics sessions. Our daily phonics lessons follow the guidance set out in Red Rose Letters and Sounds Programme. Phonics sessions aim to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right, as well as to prepare children for learning to read and write by developing their abilty to blend and segment words.
We value reading as an essential part of children's learning at Harris. All children are given two decodable home readers and a library book which they take home on a daily basis to read with parents. When parents have listened to their child read their home readers, they write a comment in their child's Reading Record. In addition to this, the children take part in regular guided reading sessions.
Our Reading Scheme begins with Phase 1 phonics with wordless books and those with simple decodable words and short phrases that are closely matched to the children's learning in their daily phonics sessions.
Along their reading journey through the Phonics Phases, the children will be provided with opportunities to practise their decoding skills (aligned to Red Rose Letters and Sounds), improve their reading fluency (smooth reading) and to deepen their comprehension skills whilst reading a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. As they become more fluent and confident readers, the scheme also provides texts that will: build their reading stamina; provide challenge; and introduce the children to wider reading for pleasure and interest across the curriculum, developing higher-order comprehension skills which will prepare them for the developing and fluent reading phases.
For any further information, on Early Reading, please contact our Phonics & Early Reading Lead: Sarah Grainger
