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
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 from the following authors:
Oliver Jeffers
Julia Donaldson
Jeanne Willis
Traditional Tales & Fairy Stories
Guided reading book - selection based on reading band
Year 2
Class authors:
Simon James
Anthony Browne
Roald Dahl
Guided reading book - selection based on reading band
Year 3
The Firework Maker’s Daughter
Oscar's Lion
Goosebumps
The Hobbit
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
The Iron Man
The Boy who stole the Pharaoh's Lunch
Winnie the Pooh
Boy
The House at Pooh Corner
The Legends of King Arthur
The Wind in the Willows
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Year 4
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
A series of Unfortunate Events
Ice Palace
Planet Omar
Charlotte's Web
Ratburger
Class Authors:
Matt Haig
David Walliams
Maz Evans
Year 5
Beowulf
Animal Farm
Room 13
Goosebumps
Talking Turkeys
Macbeth
Class Authors:
Michael Morpurgo
Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Jasbinder Bilan
Year 6
Real Reads Classics Selection
Wonder
The Island at the End of Everything
Xanthe and the Ruby Crown
Class Authors:
Onjali Q Rauf
Matt Goodfellow
Katherine Rundell
Polly Ho-Yen
Christopher Edge
Kiran Millwood Hargarve
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: