Phonics and Early Reading

For the teaching of phonics and early reading, we follow FFT's 'Success for All' Synthetic Phonics Programme.

This scheme includes reading books which are carefully matched to the phonics phase being taught in class.

'Success for All Phonics' Reading Books

In our Early Years and Key Stage One, shared reading books which align to the SFA phonics scheme are used to teach children to read. 

These books are further supplemented by SFA 'further reader' books, which are carefully selected to match a child's phonic ability for reading at home. 

To add some variety in the children's reading diet - children also take home a 'reading for pleasure' book which is closely aligned to the phonics phases. 

Oxford Reading Tree

In Key Stage Two, we use Oxford Reading Tree as the main spine for our reading in school. 

We order our reading books using the National Book Band colours and, within these broad bands, we have carefully sorted our early reading books into smaller sub-sections, which are carefully aligned to children's reading ability. This means that the books children read are fully accessible to them, to promote a joy in the success of reading.

Children's progress through the reading and phonics is carefully tracked and monitored in Early Years and Key Stage One and this extends into Key Stage Two. This supports continuity and progression right across school as children grow and develop in reading fluency and comprehension, reading carefully matched and selected texts at all points of their reading journey, meeting ever-increasingly more complex texts along the way.

By providing a wide range of books of all texts types, we aim to deepen and broaden children's reading experiences and foster a love of reading as they progress through school, from their beginnings in Early Years until they leave us at the end of Year 6. We aim to send our children off into the world as capable, life-long readers, who read for pleasure, for knowledge and for enjoyment.  

To find out more about our phonics and reading at OLASP, please follow the link below:

Tutoring with the Lightning Squad

Alongside our phonics and reading scheme, we use 'Tutoring with the Lightning Squad', which supports children in closing gaps in reading and phonics skills in a fun, interactive and engaging way! These sessions take place 3 times per week and are enjoyed by our children across school.

During their Tutoring with the Lightning Squad session, children will work on building fluency, decoding, segmenting, understanding vocabulary and also answer questions to support and develop their comprehension skills.