It is our intent at Ernehale Flying High Academies to provide our children with the highest-quality reading experiences to ensure they become confident, fluent readers who develop a love of reading. We believe that creating a love of reading will allow our children to build their imagination, extend their vocabulary and deepen their understanding of the wider world. 

We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. Reading is key for academic success and children who read regularly have increased chances later in life. Fluency in the core subjects, with reading at the heart, enables access to the full curriculum and is therefore integral to our approach. It is essential that our approach to teaching phonics and reading is accessible to all learners

Our children begin their reading journey in our Early Years where they are taught to read through the No Nonsense Phonics Programme (NNPS). No Nonsense Phonics is a DfE validated phonics programme that teaches our children to recognise and blend codes in a rigorous and systematic way. In Early Years, children start on Book 1, then progress through the books within the scheme, completing 2 books per term. Children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read, as they move through Early Years and Key Stage 1.

We are supported by the Flying High English Hub who have provided high quality training and support for all our teaching and support staff. We have enhanced teachers’ knowledge of the teaching of phonics and early reading through whole school training. This high-quality, professional development is maintained through effective, weekly coaching that is provided by our Early Reading and Phonics Lead.

We are determined for all children to make the best possible progress in reading. At all stages, reading attainment is assessed and gaps are addressed quickly and effectively for all children. Any children identified, at any point of their educational journey receive rapid intervention. Our rigorous and sequential approach to the early reading interventions develops children’ fluency, confidence and enjoyment in reading. It is supported by research on cognitive load theory, as the teaching of phonemes and early reading skills is planned in small chunks which reduces memory capacity. Termly NTS tests support the assessment and gap analysis which is used to inform teaching and intervention.

In order to give the children lots of opportunities to practice their phonics skills, we use fully decodable books which are matched to the children’s reading ability.

The children are carefully assessed and given books to take home which is matched to their phonic phase and the GPC’s that they know. This allows them to practice their skills with confidence. We use the motto ‘practice makes permanent’ if the children regularly practice the skills they have been taught, knowledge of the phonic code becomes permanent and they become fluent, confident readers.