Here at Craven Primary Academy reading is at the heart of everything we do. It is our belief that every child can become a proficient reader. Children who are good at reading do more of it meaning they learn more and they expand their vocabulary, which allows them access to more learning. No matter who we are or our background, if we are able to read we will acquire knowledge.

Our Approach

High-quality Phonics at Craven Primary Academy is implemented through Essential Letters and Sounds. Our key principle is ‘Keep Up not Catch Up’. Phonics is taught as a whole class approach for between 20 and 45 minutes a day (dependant on the age of the children.) The lesson follows a 5 part structure: revisit/review, teach, practise, apply and review. Our approach combines continuous and reactive assessment and any gaps in knowledge are carefully tracked using Phonics Tracker. Monitoring and gaps are addressed using robust interventions from the start of the year, in order for children to ‘keep up’ with their peers, alongside immediate, in the lesson intervention.

Our Journey

Early Reading Books

Our books are fully decodable and are aligned to Essential Letters and Sounds. Teachers carefully allocate reading books using the phonic assessments, ensuring that children only read books with graphemes that they already know.

National Phonics Screening Check

All children in Year 1 will be screened using the National Assessment materials in the Summer term. If a child in Year 1 does not reach the required level then additional support will be put in place in order for the child to make accelerated progress with their reading. They will be retested when they are in Year 2. This data will be submitted to the Local Authority.

Key Stage Two

Where needed, children take part in phonics intervention at the appropriate phase for their ability. This is offered as bespoke, high quality sessions ensuring that all children leave our academy as fluent readers. All children who are accessing phonics sessions take home a phonic decodable book which is precisely matched to their phonic ability.