Reading and Phonics

We believe in offering a reading-rich diet at Sauncey Wood. We teach phonics using the Twinkl phonics scheme which is a DfE-validated, fully comprehensive, systematic synthetic phonics teaching programme. Alongside this, children in EYFS and KS1 have small-group guided reading sessions every day that help consolidate phoneme, reading fluency and early comprehension skills. We send home resources linked to the phonemes taught that week for parents and offer phonic workshops for parents to support them with early reading skills at home.  

Each day children receive whole class teacher led teaching of the phonic sounds. Children learn how to say the phoneme, write the grapheme and what words contain that phoneme. We regularly assess children in phonics, checking for retention of the phonemes and if they can apply it in reading and writing. We have ongoing small group intervention sessions that run in all year groups where children need extra support with retaining and applying the phoneme.  

At Sauncey Wood we use ‘Rhino readers’ books across the school. Children work their way through the scheme until they become free readers. Reading at home is promoted and encouraged through the use of reading diaries.  

As the children move into KS2, children take part in whole class guided reading sessions. All children are given time to and encouraged to read for pleasure throughout the week. KS2 children read a range of high-quality texts such as: 

We encourage guided reading skills through whole class and small group discussion of what the children have read with a focus on vocabulary, predictions and inference. We use these skills to answer questions about the text and consider the characters and events of the story.  

Classes are timetabled to use our school library on a weekly basis. This time gives children a chance to browse for books they are interested in and discover new authors and genres. We have a rota of school volunteers who come in to support with one-to-one reading and hold regular book fairs after school to encourage a love of reading!