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Portland Road, Halifax HX3 6LA West Yorkshire

01422 360646

admin@st-josephs.calderdale.sch.uk

St Joseph's Catholic Primary Academy

We are Part of God's family; A unique gift. Faithful to God, United we excel.

We are proud to work with all the Catholic schools across our two local authority areas, particularly as the Trust grows and benefits from the expertise and knowledge that other schools joining in the future will bring.

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English - Reading

Teaching: At St. Joseph's we use 'Essential Letters and Sounds' as our Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme. This programme is followed with rigor and fidelity by all teachers and teaching assistants. Phonics lessons are taught to all children, daily in Year’s 1, 2 and Reception. To ensure that learning is embedded, flashcards and reading opportunities continue throughout the day and additional phonics teaching is given to identified children. Phonics remains the main strategy that we use to approach/decode unfamiliar words and spelling across the school. 

Home Reading at Early Years and Key Stage 1 Expectations: Before books are taken home, children take home Word Lists. Children should be proficient independent blenders before books are taken home. Each child reads with an adult in school at least once a week. Those children working within the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme have their reading books selected by their class teacher to match the sounds that they are currently working on or need to practice. This way the books become a focused tool to support progress. 

Home Reading at Key Stage 2 Expectations: 

Assessment: Individual phonics assessments are completed for all children working within Essential Letters and Sounds every half term. Teachers then use this information to support pupils in moving forwards. Continuous formative assessment is carried out during lessons and this is used to inform any same day intervention or catch up.

Intervention: Children who have been identified as ‘working below the required standard’ should have daily intervention until back on track. We continue to use Essential Letters and Sounds structures and processes for intervention.