At St Augustine’s we use Bug Club phonics to teach phonics in EYFS, KS1 and LKS2. Bug Club Phonics is one of the DfE’s approved phonics teaching programmes and aims to help all children learn to read by the age of six in a fun and accessible way. Following its own proven progression, the whole school programme matches the National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals. Bug Club Phonics offers a fully resourced systematic synthetic phonics programme based on a proven progression.
The children have a daily 20 minute taught phonics session using the interactive resources provided by Bug Club. They also have access to fully phonetically decodable Bug Club reading books that directly match the stage in the phonics that they are on. This enables our children to practice the sounds they have learnt that week and consolidate their understanding and fluency.
The children are assessed regularly to ensure they are all making progress and intervention is carefully planned and delivered for those children who need more support.
The Phonics Check
In the Summer Term of Y1, all schools are required to carry out a Phonics check where pupils are asked to sound out and read 40 words. They are a mixture of real words and ‘pseudo’ (made up) words. This check tests the children’s ability to correctly segment words into phonemes (sounds) and then blend them together in order to read the word. The pass mark for the last few years has been 32 out of 40.
Those pupils who do not score the required minimum mark are retested in the Summer of Year 2.
How you can help at home
Read with your child every day. Regular reading helps to support the children’s ability to segment and blend and will allow them to practice the sounds they have been learning at school.
Ask for any support you need from your child’s class teacher. If you are unsure about how to pronounce any of the sounds or would like more information, please speak to school and we would be more than happy to answer your questions.
At St Augustine’s, we recognise that reading is fundamental to the educational success of our pupils. It provides an opportunity to develop a rich vocabulary, influence high quality writing and also provides a gateway to success in other subjects. Most importantly, we want our children to develop a love of reading that will open their minds to a world of adventures and opportunities. We develop their reading skills, fluency and comprehension, providing opportunities that will take them beyond their day-to-day life experiences, developing a sense of curiosity and understanding of the world.
St. Augustine's Catholic Primary School 19 West End, Old Costessey, Norwich NR8 5AG
