In reception and Year 1, the ‘Floppy’s Phonics’ scheme is followed.

Floppy’s Phonics is a rigorous and systematic synthetic phonics program, validated by the Department for Education.

As part of their phonics learning, the children take home two books; one reflecting the phoneme/s that they are working on at that time in their phonics sessions and a fully decodable, levelled reader that matches their phonics knowledge and reading ability. The reading are also provided with a reading diary so their reading practice outside of school can be recorded. 

The children in reception and Year 1 will read regularly with adults in school, both 1:1 and sometimes in small groups. Volunteer readings supplement the adult support already provided.

Floppy’s Phonics is designed to work alongside the full range of phonically decodable readers within the Oxford Reading Tree range. This means, as the children move into Year 2 and lower key stage 2, they can continue to follow a reading scheme that flows seamlessly from the end of their Floppy’s Phonics work in Year 1. 

Our strong Phonics Screening results (the screening is carried out at the end of Year 1), shows our approach to phonics and early reading works well in preparing children with the decoding skills they will need for the rest of school and in their lives. However, we also believe that, as well as the fundamental decoding and comprehension skills, the children need to also develop a love of books and reading. Therefore, all children from reception to Year 6 visit the school library on a weekly basis to chose a book to read at school and home. We have also structured our English curriculum so that each unit of work is based around a rich text as its starting point and inspiration.