Applying Knowledge

At NCS we have invested time, effort and money into our early reading scheme. We have incorporated a variety of different reading schemes that are all organised into phonics phases based on the content of the books. We have carefully chosen the different schemes to enable the children to have a variety and breadth in their reading experiences. 

The reading books sent home will be aligned to the children's phonics stage to enable the children to read with the confidence that they know all the sounds in the book. On occasions books may have the odd word that the child cannot decode. These are written into the fronts of the books to enable parents to help out. 

Home reading is very much about children showing off their decoding skills to their family, so the children should be able to read these books with ease after a couple of attempts. 

We send home two books each week. The children should practise reading and rereading throughout the week. These are then read with teaching staff during the week and changed when the child is confident in both their reading and their comprehension of the books.

Assessments

As with all areas of the curriculum, assessment is an integral part of the teaching process. Class teachers keep records of work carried out, and levels of achievement for each child. Phonics Jotters are used in Reception, Year One and Year Two for the children to apply their learning in a written form. These are assessed by teaching staff on completion. 

Formative assessment is used to guide the teaching of individual pupils in Phonics. At NCS we use Phonics Tracker each half term / term to assess whether the child is able to recall phoneme sounds, apply this to blend to read words, segment to spell words using known sounds and read the common exception words taught within the phonics sessions. 

The ongoing assessment processes and formative assessments are used to ensure children understanding and retaining the information taught in sessions and are reading the correct level of books. They are also used to implement interventions where needed and ensure children are in the correct teaching group for phonics.