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- English - Phonics, Reading and Writing
English - Phonics, Reading and Writing
English Curriculum Statement
Knowledge, Skills and Progressions Documents
Reading - Knowledge, Skills and Progression
Handwriting - Knowledge, Skills and Progression
Phonics
Introduction to phonics
Systematic Synthetic Phonics is a way of teaching children to read, write and spell. The sounds that children learn are taught in a specific, systematic order (not alphabetically) so that children can begin to build words from these sounds as early as possible. Phonics supports children to hear, identify and link the sounds that letters make (phonemes) to what the letters look like when written down (graphemes). This helps children to recognise and read words, using knowledge of the sounds to read new or unfamiliar words.
Children from Edith Moorhouse Primary School are taught to read using Systematic Synthetic Phonics, from Pre-school using Letters and Sounds Phase 1. As children move into Reception, Rocket Phonics is introduced and continued throughout the school for all phonics teaching and learning.
Phonics in Pre-school
Rocket Phonics Parent Guide
Rocket phonics and early reading
Reading
Reading at Edith Moorhouse Primary School
At Edith Moorhouse, reading is a central focus of our curriculum, and we are committed to ensuring that all pupils, including those with SEND and Pupil Premium, develop the knowledge and skills needed to become confident, accomplished readers. Our ambitious reading curriculum is designed to give every child the tools to thrive academically and to foster a love of reading. Reading is prioritised across all subjects to allow pupils to fully engage with our diverse curriculum.
We have designed our Reading Strategy based on research-informed teaching practices developed by Christopher Such, ensuring that classroom instruction is grounded in a solid foundation of knowledge. By the time our children leave Edith Moorhouse, most are not only proficient readers for learning but also enthusiastic readers for pleasure.
As part of our strong commitment to phonics, we adopted the Rocket Phonics Systematic Synthetic Phonics scheme in 2021. Since implementing this programme, we have seen significant improvements in reading, writing, and phonics screening results across Reception and Key Stage 1. Teachers, Teaching Assistants, and pupils are fully engaged, creating an exciting and dynamic learning environment where children are eager to read and write. Rocket Phonics is designed for whole-class teaching, with a focus on helping children keep up with the pace of learning. Phonics is embedded throughout the school environment, with teachers taking every opportunity to revisit sounds, practice segmenting and blending, and reinforce learning with flashcards.
We assess children's phonics progress each term and provide individualised phonic plans for those who are not meeting expectations. For children who need further support, we extend this phonics programme into Key Stage 2. Our teachers and teaching assistants receive bespoke, ongoing training to ensure a consistent approach to the delivery of the programme across the school.
Reading is a daily activity for our children, and takes a variety of forms, including whole class, small group, and individual reading. Rocket Phonics Target Reader books are used for group reading in Reception and Year 1, ensuring that books are aligned with each child’s phonic knowledge. For whole class reading, we select texts that are progressively more complex and provide increasing reading challenges. Teachers model reading daily and regularly read aloud to the class, exposing children to rich vocabulary through age appropriate stories, nursery rhymes, poems, and texts.
To ensure all children, including those with SEND and Pupil Premium, have the opportunity to develop a love of reading, we promote regular discussions about books in the classroom and at home. We provide families with age-appropriate book recommendations and offer events like Book at Bedtime, World Book Day, Snatchabook, Readathon and the Book Fair to celebrate reading. We also encourage 'reading together' at home and provide a Reading Shed in the playground where children can borrow books. We are currently fundraising for a school library to further support our reading initiative.
Reading at home is strongly encouraged across the school. Parents and carers are invited to an introductory meeting at the start of the Reception year where they are taught how we approach phonics, reading, and writing, and how they can best support their child’s reading journey at home. Children who need additional support with their reading are given opportunities to read more frequently in school.
Throughout the school, we also place a strong emphasis on vocabulary and oracy. Discussions and vocabulary work are integrated into all lessons, with class texts carefully selected to offer rich language that is appropriate for the children's age and developmental stage.
At Edith Moorhouse, our children develop a deep and powerful understanding of phonics, which fuels their love for reading and enables them to connect seamlessly with books, whether traditional or modern, while confidently predicting outcomes and retrieving key information. Our children thrive in a rich vocabulary landscape, using language fluently in daily conversations, eagerly discussing the books they have read. They excitedly embrace new reading materials to further expand their literacy journey to provide them with the tools to embark on a lifelong literacy journey with confidence and excitement.
Reading Shed
We are absolutely delighted with our new outdoor library - The Reading Shed. We had a grand opening with the help of our Year 6 Reading Shed Volunteers. Within minutes of its opening, the children were choosing books to read and making good use of it - spending even more time reading for pleasure. At Edith Moorhouse, we want all our children to have a love of books and this is just one of the many ways that we aim to foster a passion for reading.
Whilst an outdoor library is fantastic, we are currently in the process of planning and fundraising for a new whole school library to support our drive to get every child reading and loving books.
The Children's Book Project
Edith Moorhouse are active members of The Children's Book Project. This is a national charity that believes every child should have access to quality books, as do we. To learn more about this charity, visit https://childrensbookproject.co.uk/receive-books/
This scheme runs entirely on kindness of local families and businesses donating pre-loved books.
World Book Day
World Book Day is a charity event held every year on the first Thursday in March. At Edith Moorhouse we celebrate World Book Day in a variety of ways. We encourage reading for pleasure and support this cause to provide every child with a book of their own.
- Our World of Stories has a great new range of free audiobooks, plus discover more on the free Yoto App, courtesy of our official audio partner, Yoto.
- Younger children will enjoy our Share A Story Corner with video stories and fun accompanying activities.
- Invite children to complete the Pawprint Family Challenges.
- Find fun activities, book recommendations and much more at worldbookday.com/familie
At Edith Moorhouse Primary School, our dream is to build a new school library that will provide access space and expertise to support children in their reading journey. An effective school library has been proven to have a positive, long-term impact for children. Libraries also provide safe spaces and contribute to positive wellbeing for all. Visit the Library Project page to follow our journey.
Read For Good
During March 2024, the whole school were invited to take part in a charity 'Readathon' to support Read for Good. We are pleased to say a total of £901.51 was raised.
Writing
How is handwriting taught at Edith Moorhouse?
Handwriting skills are taught regularly and systematically throughout the school, beginning in our pre-school.
In Pre-School, children should be encouraged to mark-make using a range of different materials and then give meaning to their marks. Children should start to understand that they write from left to right and from the top to the bottom of the page.
As the children move from Pre-school into Reception, they will be taught to hold a pencil correctly using a tripod pencil grip, where the pencil is gripped between the index finger and the thumb. The middle finger is then used to support the underside of the pencil. Children should be encouraged to adopt the correct writing posture and they should be taught the correct page orientation depending on whether they are left or right handed. Careful consideration should be taken as to whether children are left or right handed when seating children.
In Reception, the children should start to learn how to form individual print letters (both upper and lower case) on lined paper using regular sized pencils. The letters taught will match the graphemes covered in the children’s phonics lessons and are outlined on the Handwriting Knowledge and Skills Progression document. Each letter should be taught individually, using the appropriate rhyme (see letter formation document), ensuring that the children start and finish each letter in the appropriate place. Each capital letter should be taught alongside the lower case letter. Children that reverse or misform letters should be identified and regular reminders and/or prompts should be given. By the end of Year 1, the children should have a secure understanding of how to form both lower and upper case letters. Children should write on lined paper wherever possible and should not be encouraged to practise their handwriting or letter formation using a white board and pen.
At the start of Year 2, the children consolidate their understanding of print letter formation before being introduced to the smile and diagonal joins. Pupils should develop a secure understanding of when to use a diagonal or a smile join and which letters are best to remain unjoined. Capital letters, letters separated by an apostrophe and the letter ‘q’ should never be joined. Pupils should practise the letters individually with both the diagonal and smile lead-ins before progressing to joining letters to form words. Children should not be asked to join letters that they have not been taught and consequently words the children are asked to join in handwriting sessions should be carefully chosen.
By the Spring term of Year 2, the children should have been exposed to all of the letters in the alphabet and therefore should be encouraged to write in joined handwriting in all of their work. By the end of Year 2, the children should be able to confidently join their handwriting and have a good understanding of which letters should and shouldn’t be joined.
As the children progress into Year 3, the focus should be on consolidating their understanding and use of letter joins. They will continue to have formal, sequential handwriting lessons until the Spring term of Year 4 where handwriting lessons will be tailored to the specific needs of the class, focusing on size, accuracy and legibility.
In UKS2, the children should be encouraged to soften the diagonal joins to develop a more fluid and individualised style of handwriting. As in Year 4, handwriting lessons should be tailored to the needs of the class, focusing on speed, accuracy and legibility.
A typical handwriting lesson may contain all or some of the following elements, depending on the stage that the children are working at:
- Gross motor skills warm-up e.g. arm circles, wall presses, chair pushes
- Fine motor skills warm-up e.g. finger rhymes, finger disco, dough disco
- Introduction of the letter(s) that the children are going to be joining
- Reminder of the print letter formation by teacher modelling, use of the letter script, handwriting videos and other resources
- Reminder of smile, diagonal and half-smile joins and when they should be used
- Modelling of both the smile and diagonal lead-in to the letter and the join that leads out, using the letter script, handwriting videos (I do)
- As a class children follow the letter formation with their finger (gross motor skills) saying the letter script (We do)
- Children then trace over the letter before attempting to write the letter(s) on lined paper (You do)
- Feedback should be given and any incorrect letter formation should be picked up here
- The same ‘I do, We do, You do’ method should be used when modelling how to write whole words in a joined hand. As mentioned previously, careful consideration should be given to the words chosen for this activity. Children should only join letters for which they have already practised the smile and diagonal lead-in.
In 2022, Edith Moorhouse embarked on our journey of 'Opening Doors to Ambitious Writing.'
‘Opening Doors' is all about making challenging texts and a quality English curriculum available to all our learners.
LKS2 took on the challenge of Alice in Wonderland as their first 'Opening Doors' unit. You can see two pieces of work published on the Crown House Publishing website.
