Oakham has used the National Curriculum, EYFS curriculum and a phonics journey based on a blend of ‘Letters and Sounds’ and ‘Active Learn’ phonics resources and texts.
The National Curriculum states that pupils should be taught to read fluently, understand extended prose and be encouraged to read for pleasure. Reading is singled out as having extreme importance in the curriculum and is split into two main dimensions: Word Reading & Comprehension (both listening and reading)
It is essential that, by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject in their forthcoming secondary education.
Oakham aims to deliver on pupils’ entitlement through a combination of literacy lessons, guided reading, phonics teaching and shared reading
Early Years
Key Stage One
Key Stage Two
Oakham phonics is based upon Letters and Sounds but has been revised in October 2021 to incorporate elements of Active Learn and Bug Club. We believe that this revised phonics delivery best delivers our objective of ensuring that phonics reading tightly fits with phonic teaching.
A copy of our phonics progression for Phases 2-5 ca be found in Appendix 2 of this document. A brief summary of progression is listed below:
Phase 2: s, a, t, p, I, n, m, d, g, o, c, k, ck, e, u, r, h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss
Phase 3: j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu, ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er
Phase 4: CVCC words, spelling words with two adjacent consonants
Phase 5: zh, ph, wh, ay, a-e, eigh, ey, ei, ea, e-e, ie, ey, y, ie, i-e, y, ow, o-e, o, oe, ew, ue, u-e, u, oul, aw, au, al, ir, er, ear, ou, oy, eer, ere, are, ear, c, k, ck, ch, ce, ci, cy, sc, stl, se, ge, g,i g, y, dge, le, mb, kn, gn, wr, tch, t(tion), ss(ion), c(ial), ea, wa, o
Phase 6
By the beginning of Phase Six, children should know most of the common grapheme– phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They should be able to read hundreds of words, doing this in three ways:
1. Reading the words automatically if they are very familiar.
2. Decoding them quickly and silently because their sounding and blending routine is now well established.
3. Decoding them aloud. Children’s spelling should be phonemically accurate, although it may still be a little unconventional at times. Spelling usually lags behind reading, as it is harder. (During this phase, children become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers.
The Oakham 'Reading Spine'
The children are provided with a rich reading curriculum throughout their journey at Oakham. Our group reading sessions, class novels and independent reading all designed to foster and encourage a love of reading and expose children to a rich and varied diet of stories from many genres, times and cultures.
Class teachers will also use extracts from many other texts and authors as stimuli for writing units as well as others linked to topics in the wider curriculum.
Year 1
To support the transition to KS1, children will read and listen to a range of works form the following authors:
J.Duddle
J.Donaldson
E.Carr
Traditional Tales & Fairy Stories
Year 2
The Tunnel
Dear Greenpeace
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Harry the Poisonous Centipede's Big Adventure
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Year 3
Mr Gum
13 Story Treehouse
Stig of the Dump.
Why the Whales Came
The Firework Maker’s Daughter
Esio Trot
Year 4
The Iron Man
How to Train Your Dragon
Clockwork
The Snow-Walkers Son
Year 5
Kensuke’s Kingdom
Beetle Boy
The Explorer
Year 6
Selection of Real Reads including:
A Christmas Carol, Frankenstein, Dracula, Moby Dick, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, A Study in Scarlett, All Quiet on the Western Front, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Great Expectations, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, Les Miserables, Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, South, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Moonstone, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Sign of the Four, The Time Machine, The Woman in White, The War of the Worlds, Tom Sawyer, Wuthering Heights,
Spelling at Oakham
Our Ethos
We strive to make the teaching of spelling both enjoyable and purposeful. It is our hope that no child will leave school with gaps in their spelling knowledge but instead embark on the next steps along their educational journey full of confidence and ambition. Our aims include: