Early Reading and Phonics
At St Augustine's, phonics is taught daily to all children in Reception and Year One and some of Year 2 as appropriate. We use the 'Phonics Bug' programme to support the teaching of the letters of the alphabet and their matching sounds.
What makes Phonics Bug so special?
Phonics Bug meets 100% of the DfE criteria for teaching systematic synthetic phonics.
Encourages young readers with beautiful artwork, humour, loveable characters and books and topics they really want to read.
Fast, effective phonics lessons using videos and interactive whiteboard activities.
Prepare and Assess online games, word generator and mock tests for the Year 1 screening check.
Combines an online reading world with stunning eBooks and beautiful printed books to spark enthusiasm.
Phonic sessions are taught 5 days a week for 30 to 40 minutes each day and within this lesson, guided reading takes place, linked to the new taught sound for that day. Children are taught in small groups based on their ability for phonics within their own class.
By the end of Reception, children are expected to at least know all Phase Three sounds. By the end of Year One all children are expected to know all Phase Five sounds. When finishing Key Stage One, most children are secure in Phase Six sounds. This phase moves away from learning sounds and focuses on spelling rules and patterns.
At the end of Year One all the children in the country take a test called a Phonics Screening. They have to read 40 real and nonsense words. We call the nonsense words ‘Alien words’ and the children practice reading them every day.
For more information on how you can support your child in learning to read, click on the helpful links below. If you have any questions, please come and see Ms Benson.
Reading
At St Augustine's School we use 'Phonics Bugs' for our reading scheme in Early Years and Year 1 (Year 2 for those children who have not passed the Phonics Screening Check).
Phonics Bug Club is an online and physical reading scheme, which ensures children have access to decodable books, which are varied and have a rich reading experience. What’s more, there is a personalised website for each child using the online reading world. The books are allocated to the children linked to the sounds they are learning that week and should be read independently.
Also the children have access to a variety of published schemes (ORT, Bug Club, Rigby Star and others) and our school library as a 'Read With Me' book. These reading books do not necessarily match with the phonics phase the children are currently on but are to develop a joy of reading with support from an adult at home. In Key stage 2 the books are organised in widely based book bands. Our library is organised by key stages and fiction/non-fiction books.