A Helping Hand
Over the course of the year selected Year 6 students have been paired with children in both Reception and Key Stage One to support their learning in phonics. Volunteering their time every single morning without fail, the dedicated Year Sixes help to develop speedy reading with Reception children as well as reading whole books from the phonics series for children in Year 1.
In the Reception setting, the Mini Phonics Leaders invite individual children to read through previously taught words. This has had great impact on not only the children in Reception, but for the Year 6 children too!
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In Year 1 the Phonics Reading Partners encourage the Year 1 children to decode words with speed in preparation for their phonics lessons. The Year 1 children will listen to their Year 6 Reading Partners read the page back to them after they have practised their decoding skills. With this practise, our Key Stage One teachers are then given more time to teach comprehension and writing skills during the phonics lessons. The programme helps to boost the children’s confidence as well as develop relationships and an enjoyment in shared reading.
The impact that the programme has had on the children in Reception and Year 1 has been incredible. At the end of the Autumn term, roughly two-thirds of the children in Reception were at the expected levels in phonics, and since starting the Mini Phonics Leaders programme this figure has risen to 88%! Likewise in Year 1, after two weeks in the programme 66% of children have made enough progress to move up a group. Truly amazing work!
