English at Firthmoor Primary School
Firthmoor’s Curriculum Team for Reading
Mrs Gibson (Y6 Teacher)
Kinley (Y2)
Dolce (Y3)
Elizabeth (Y4)
Lyla (Y5)
Josie (Y6)
Reading Curriculum
Reading Intent
Reading is at the heart of our curriculum. Our aim at Firthmoor Primary School is to provide all children with good quality texts and literature, in order to develop their reading fluency and comprehension skills. They will then be able to apply these skills across the wider curriculum. We aim to provide our children with opportunitites to become confident, competent and fluent, independent readers and develop a life-long love of reading.
Implementation
EYFS (Nursery – Reception)
At Firthmoor Primary School, we teach phonics through Letters & Sounds. This is a detailed systematic programme for teaching phonics skills through six phases. In the early stages, the Letters & Sounds programme is enhanced using actions associated with each of the 42 letter sounds. The multi-sensory method engages children more effectively in their learning.
Daily phonics lessons are carried our in both Nursery and Reception and are fundamental for children to be able to decode by segmenting and blending as they learn to read. Group sessions are used to deliver new sounds. Following a teacher led activity, children have opportunities to apply their learning through a variety of tasks that match their ability and interest.
Timescale for Letter & Sounds in Firthmoor Primary:
| Phase | Phonic knowledge and skills |
| Phase 1 – Nursery/Reception | Activities are divided into seven aspects, including environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and finally oral blending and segmenting. |
| Phase 2 – Reception (Aut 1) | Learning 20 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Blending sounds together to make words. Segmenting words into their separate sounds. Beginning to read simple captions. |
| Phase 3 – Reception (Aut 2/Spr 1) | The remaining six letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. -ck, -ff, -ll, -ss, -zz, qu- Consonant digraphs: sh, ch, th, ng Vowel diagraphs: ai, ee, oo, aa Reading captions, sentences and questions. |
| Phase 4 – Reception (Spr 2/Sum 1) | Diagraphs: oi, or, ar, er, ur Trigraphs: igh, air, ear, ure Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants e.g. swim, clap, jump. |
| Phase 5 – Throughout Year 1 | Children will learn alternative graphemes for the phonemes they already know, e.g. been/bean. |
| Phase 6 – Throughout Year 2 and beyond | This phase focuses on spelling including prefixes and suffixes as well as doubling and dropping letters. |
As the children start school in Reception, parents are invited to a phonics information meeting at which the acquisition of early skills is explained. Staff model how parents might support their child to develop skills of book handling, sequencing and prediction through a story without words. To support parents’ knowledge of the teaching of phonics, staff model blending and segmenting using crisp, clear letter sounds. All parents receive a free, magnetic whiteboard and letters to support learning at home.
Once children are able to blend the sounds in set 1/2 of Letters & Sounds, they are issues a decodable book for home reading. The teacher chooses the reading books for children and carefully ensures they match their phonic ability. reading books are colour coded to match the different phases of Letters & Sounds. As well as taking home a decodable reading book, children also take home a book that is to be shared and read by an adult so children become familiar with handling books and are supported to access a wide range of quality children’s authors.
Story sacks are used in EYFS so that children use puppets and soft toys to retell stories, which further develops their story language e.g. Once upon a time, happily ever after.
In addition to the above, children are exposed to good, quality texts in and around the classroom. Some of these include books from Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine and the recommended Book Trust books suitable for their age range.
Key Stage One (Y1-Y2)
At the end of Y1, children are expected to be secure in Phase 5 of Letters & Sounds. The National Phonics Screening Check is also completed by all children in Y1 in the summer term. This comprises of 40 real and nonsense words which are matched to the phonics children will have learned throughout EYFS and Y1.
Those children who fail to reach the expected standard in Y1 are provided with additional support in Y2.
In Y2, the phonic teaching mainly focuses on Phase 6 of Letters & Sounds while reinforcing the sounds from previous phases.
By the end of Y2, we expect children to be secure with all phases of Letters & Sounds and become fluent, free readers.
Children are given reading books matched to their phonic or reading ability and are encouraged to read to parents on a regular basis.
Quality texts from Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine and Book Trust recommended reads are also incorporated into class libraries for children to read. Teachers also use this good, quality literature in the reading into writing sessions.
Key Stage 2 (Y3-Y6)
Children in KS2 continue to have access to high quality reading books in the two school’s libraries as well as class reading areas. A range of non-fiction material to support learning int he wider curriculum is available e.g. The Week Junior, Science + Nature magazines. Home school reading records are issued to children in which they record each book read with a brief book review. Parents and school staff add comments to develop pupils’ reading responses and widen their reading choices.
Quality texts from Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine as well as the Book Trust recommended reading books are incorporated into every classroom library. Extracts from them can be used in shared writing or reading sessions if they lend themselves to a particular type of writing e.g. setting description/story opeings/dialogue/
At the beginning of the teaching sequence for each txt type/purpose for writing, teachers begin with ‘reading into writing’ sessions. Good examples of literature are used for children to analyse and explore for specific vocabulary and key features ready to plan and write independently.
Reading Spine (Nursery – Year 6)
Reading in Action
Celebrating World Book Day 2025
Book hamper from Morrisons
Our Reading Team were presented with a fantastic book ‘hamper’ from Morrison’s which contained 10 lovely children’s books.
We used the books as rewards for those children who completed exemplary work during World Book Day on Thursday.
The first picture shows the Reading Team with the book hamper, and the second shows some of the children who received the books as rewards for their World Book Day work.
Well done everyone, and thank you very much to all at Morrison’s for the wonderful donation of books!
Writing
Pictured here is budding author Lee, with the stories he has recently written. We believe that if Lee keeps up with his writing, he could become as famous as Roald Dahl, J K Rowling or Julia Donaldson when he is older! The titles of his first stories include; The Boy Who Lost His Key, The Boy Who Couldn’t Drink Coke, The Boy Who Wasn’t Allowed To Eat Biscuits and Mike’s Balloon.
Over the course of a year, children are exposed to a wide variety of texts to support the many different genres of writing taught. These range from: stories, diaries, letters, chronological and non-chronological reports to poetry and play scripts.
During the planning stage, teachers model the writing process and children learn to make notes in preparation for independent work. All pupils are taught how to self-edit and improve their writing whilst older children are encouraged to participate in peer assessment. Dictionaries, thesauruses and classroom ‘Word Walls’ enhance spelling and develop vocabulary.
Marking ladders support the writing process, reminding children of their targets and promoting independence. Pink and green highlighters assist pupils in identifying positive aspects of a child’s work whilst providing editing tasks.
The development of a neat, legible handwriting style begins with a focus on developing children’s fine motor skills and accurate letter formation in the Early Years. All children are encouraged to take a pride in the presentation of their written work with the introduction of a joined handwriting style by the end of KS1.
Speaking & Listening
We view the development of good speaking and listening skills as a priority in ensuring that our pupils become effective communicators.
Speaking and listening is embedded in every lesson throughout every year group. Children are taught the characteristics of good speaking and listening in PSHE lessons, circle time activities and as a part of general classroom lessons where partner work allows children to share their ideas. Participation in drama lessons, assemblies and whole school productions provides further opportunities for our pupils to develop good speaking and listening skills in front of a wider audience
Spelling
Early spelling is linked with Letters and Sounds phonic teaching. From Y1, spelling lists and common exception words are displayed in each classroom. The ‘5-4-3-2-1’ minute approach is used to allow children to practise these spellings on a daily basis. Spelling patterns are also taught within Literacy lessons.
Children are encouraged to self-edit their work and correct any misspelt words.
The DfE National Curriculum Document sets out the framework for the National Curriculum at key stages 1 and 2 and states:
Writing down ideas fluently depends on effective transcription: that is, on spelling quickly and accurately through knowing the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and understanding the morphology (word structure) and orthography (spelling structure) of words
The word-lists for years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6 are statutory. The lists are a mixture of words pupils frequently use in their writing and those which they often misspell. Some of the listed words may be thought of as quite challenging, but the 100 words in each list can easily be taught within the four years of key stage 2 alongside other words that teachers consider appropriate. Spelling lists are sent home with pupils on a weekly basis as part of their homework.
The links below detail the statutory spelling work for each year group(s)
