About this curriculum

ESSENTIAL LETTERS AND SOUNDS

Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) is our chosen Phonics programme. The aim of ELS is‘ Getting all children to read well, quickly’. It teaches children to read by identifying the phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and graphemes (the written version of the sound) within words and using these to read words.

Children begin learning Phonics at the very beginning of Reception and it is explicitly taught every day during a dedicated slot on the timetable. Children are given the knowledge and the skills to then apply this independently.

Throughout the day, children will use their growing Phonics knowledge to support them in other areas of the curriculum and will have many opportunities to practise their reading. This includes reading 1:1 with a member of staff, with a partner during paired reading and as a class.

Children continue daily Phonics lessons in Year 1 and further through the school as necessary to ensure all children become confident, fluent readers.

We follow the ELS progression and sequence. This allows our children to practise their existing phonic knowledge whilst building their understanding of the ‘code’ of our language GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence). As a result, our children can tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover.

Children experience the joy of books and language whilst rapidly acquiring the skills they need to become fluent independent readers and writers. ELS teaches relevant, useful and ambitious vocabulary to support each child’s journey to becoming fluent and independent readers.

We begin by teaching the single letter sounds before moving to diagraphs such as, ‘sh’ (two letters spelling one sound), trigraphs ‘igh’ (three letters spelling one sound) and quadgraphs ‘eigh’ (four letters spelling one sound).

We teach children to:

  • Decode     (read) by identifying each sound within a word and blending them together     to read fluently
  • Encode     (write) by segmenting each sound to write words accurately.

The structure of ELS lessons allows children to know what is coming next, what they need to do, and how to achieve success. This makes it easier for children to learn the GPCs we are teaching (the alphabetic code) and how to apply this when reading.

ELS is designed on the principle that children should ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’. Since interventions are delivered within the lesson by the teacher, any child who is struggling with the new knowledge can be immediately targeted with appropriate support. Where further support is required, 1:1 interventions are used. These interventions are short, specific and effective.

Supporting Reading at Home

  • Children will only read books that are entirely decodable, this means that they should be able to read these books as they already know the code contained within the book.
  • We only use pure sounds when decoding words (no ‘uh’ after the sound)
  • We want children to practise reading their book 4 times across the week working on these skills:
        Decode – sounding out and blending to read the word.
        Fluency – reading words with less obvious decoding.
        Expression – using intonation and expression to bring the text to life!

We must use pure sounds when we are pronouncing the sounds and supporting children in reading words. If we mispronounce these sounds, we will make reading harder for our children. Please watch the videos sent home from your child's class teacher.

Any books that are not yet decodable for the children will be a 'sharing book'. These books are there for you to read with you child, helping to instil a love of reading from the very beginning of their reading journey. These could be read together with your child reading the words they are able to decode or could be read to your child..

More support for parents and carers can be found here:

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/essential-letters-and-sounds/

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Some EYFS children and parents enjoyed the school library this evening at the afterschool reading club. All classes have now had an opportunity this half term to enjoy this space! An email will be sent out after half term informing you of some additional library slots before Christmas. Thank you, Miss Harris.
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Foundation Stage have had a brilliant spooky day today! A huge thank you to Manadon Vale PTFA for the super party this afternoon 🎃👻
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Year 3 Come Dancing 🕺🏼 💃 This term, Year 3 have been creating a range of motifs and dynamics in their dance lessons. A change of speed and level has been a focus, as well as being able to perform in cannon and unison. This morning, both Orcas and Coral performed to each other. Here are some stills 📸 More pictures and videos to follow soon
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It was wonderful to see so many Year 6 parents and grandparents turn up to our first afterschool ‘Rock up and Read session’ today. The children loved sharing their independent writing with you! 💙
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Dolphin class had fun playing the glockenspiels today!
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Year 2 have been looking at instructions! We now know what features a set of instructions have! We even managed to follow a simple set of instructions to make cool paper hats! Ahoy⚓️
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Well done to all the competitors in the Plymouth schools cross country competition yesterday. Every child ran so well and all should be very proud of how they did!
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Year 1 parents are currently enjoying their afterschool library slot. Parents and carers are invited in to relax and enjoy this space with a tea or coffee. Juice and biscuits for children ☺️💙
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Reminder ** Tomorrow, all children and staff are invited to wear mufti to school. Please donate a children’s book (second-hand and in good condition) if you can, for our school library. Please note, we are not looking for new books so please don’t go and buy a brand-new book, we are looking for pre-loved books. Thank you, Miss Harris. Year 6 teacher and English lead.
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Rain may have put a halt to our outdoor PE today but it didn’t stop us from having fun indoors.
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Year 6 worked with peers in the opposite class to complete their final piece art work (drawing a face) in the style of Pablo Picasso. They used a variety of 2D shapes and straight lines.
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Mr Williams' football club is not on tomorrow (as stated on the original letter) due to a cross country competition. The cross country is currently still on. The weather looks good tomorrow, though the ground at Staddiscombe will likely be very muddy!
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We still have lots of Halloween disco tickets for sale!🎃
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