St Anne's Catholic Primary School

In Nursery, Reception and Year 1, all Literacy teaching commences with Phonics.  This is a method of teaching reading and writing by which children are systematically taught the relationships between the sounds in our language and the letters used to represent those sounds.  Once children have been taught which sounds are linked to which letters, they are able to crack the code and can confidently have a go at reading and writing anything.  At the end of Year 1, the children take the Phonics Screening Test.  Alongside Phonics, children are taught to read.  They take home reading books as well as participating in Guiding Reading sessions in groups.  Children are also taught spelling of both patterned words and 'tricky' words.  Initially writing is largely child-led.  However, as children develop, teachers provide models for writing and undertake guided writes.

By Year 2, most children are confident in their Phonics knowledge and the teaching of reading focuses increasingly on comprehension.  Spelling continues to be comprised of words with patterns and those without ('tricky' words).  Writing is inspired by a model text and skills are taught through guided writes delivered by the teaching staff at both whole class and group levels. 

At the end of Years 2 and 6, the children undertake statutory tests in Reading and Writing (as well as Maths).  In Year 6, a further test is taken in Spelling and Grammar.