Assuring high quality phonic work – snapshot self-assessment form
The self-assessment below provides a snapshot of how this product meets the core
criteria for a high quality phonics programme. For more detailed information on how
this product meets each of the core criteria, please see the detailed form.
Name of product: Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds Phonics by Julia Donaldson,
Series Editor Clare Kirtley
Is this a full, stand alone phonics teaching programme or a supplementary
resource or group of resources? Please explain briefly how the product
should be used in teaching.
This is a supplementary resource.
This product:
presents high quality systematic, synthetic phonic work
as the prime approach to decoding print, i.e. a phonics
‘first and fast’ approach
enables children to start learning phonic knowledge and
skills using a systematic, synthetic programme by the
age of five, with the expectation that they will be fluent
readers having secured word recognition skills by the
end of key stage one
is designed for the teaching of discrete, daily sessions
progressing from simple to more complex phonic
knowledge and skills and covering the major
grapheme/phoneme correspondences
Tick to
confirm
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enables children’s progress to be assessed

uses a multi-sensory approach so that children learn
variously from simultaneous visual, auditory and
kinaesthetic activities which are designed to secure
essential phonic knowledge and skills

demonstrates that phonemes should be blended, in
order, from left to right, ‘all through the word’ for reading

demonstrates how words can be segmented into their
constituent phonemes for spelling and that this is the
reverse of blending phonemes to read words

ensures that children apply phonic knowledge and skills
as their first approach to reading and spelling even if a
word is not completely phonically regular

•
ensures that children are taught high
frequency words that do not conform

completely to grapheme/phoneme
correspondence rules
•
provides fidelity to the teaching framework
for the duration of the programme, to ensure
that these irregular words are fully learnt
ensures that, as pupils move through the early stages
of acquiring phonics, they are invited to practise by
reading texts which are entirely decodable for them, so
that they experience success and learn to rely on
phonemic strategies.


Please explain how your product meets the core criteria above.
Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds supports the systematic, multisensory teaching and
practice of synthetic phonics in a fun, motivating and meaningful way. Phonics is
used consistently as the main approach to decoding words, and high-frequency
words that are not fully decodable are also introduced systematically.
Songbirds is designed to be used from the Foundation stage. It can be used in
regular, daily sessions using the interactive CD-ROMs and engaging, decodable
levelled readers by Julia Donaldson. It can also be used in conjunction with other
programmes, to supplement and reinforce phonic learning. Songbirds teaches
• essential knowledge, e.g. the 44 phonemes and their corresponding
graphemes
• essential concepts, e.g. one grapheme can correspond to more than one
phoneme
• essential skills, e.g. blending and segmenting.
The programme includes ongoing opportunities for assessment through activities on
the CD-ROMs and guidance in the teaching notes.
The introduction and practice of phonics in a structured and progressive way helps
build children’s phonic knowledge and supports them in becoming confident and
motivated readers.
The storybooks are fully matched to Oxford Reading Tree stages for easy integration
in the classroom.
Please provide a brief explanation of what your product provides, e.g.
resources, training etc
Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds comprises:
• Three interactive eSongbirds CD-ROMs to teach systematically the 44
phonemes and their graphemes through alphabet rhymes, talking stories and
activities
• 60 phonic storybooks by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo, with
enjoyable and funny stories that are motivating and fun to read as well as
decodable at the relevant Phase of Letters and Sounds
• Teaching support in the form of 10 Teaching Notes booklets, one for each set
of 6 storybooks, and notes for parents inside the covers of each storybook.
Contact details
Further info:
Oxford University Press
Great Clarendon St
Oxford
Ox2 6DP
www.OxfordPrimary.co.uk
Tel: 01865 353881
To order:
OUP Distribution
North Kettering Business Park
Hipwell Road
Kettering
Northamptonshire
NN14 1UA
Tel: 01536 452610
Assuring high quality phonic work – Detailed self-assessment form
This second self assessment form gives schools and settings detailed and expanded
information about this product, set against each core criterion.
Name of product: Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds by Julia Donaldson,
Series Editor Clare Kirtley
Please explain how your product meets the following core criteria:
This product presents high quality systematic, synthetic phonic work as the prime
approach to decoding print by:
•
•
•
•
Combining 60 lively, decodable storybooks with electronic phonics teaching
materials and structured activities to engage children from Foundation Stage
and throughout Key Stage 1
Ensuring a structured progression of activities on the CD-ROMs, and
systematic phonic levelling in the storybooks, in line with the expectations laid
out in Letters and Sounds
Supporting the use of synthetic phonics knowledge and skills as the prime
reading strategy, with the focus phonics clearly highlighted in each book and
teaching session
Providing guidance to teachers, teaching assistants and parents in the form of
Teaching Notes booklets and handy notes inside the covers of the
storybooks, to help them reinforce the phonic knowledge and skills that
children are developing as they progress through the programme.
This product enables children to start learning phonic knowledge and skills using a
systematic, synthetic programme by the age of five, with the expectation that they will
be fluent readers having secured word recognition skills by the end of key stage one
by:
•
•
•
Providing both print and electronic materials that are suitable for use with
children in Foundation Stage as well as in Key Stage 1
Including storybooks at the earliest stages of the programme which are
appropriate for use by children who have only just started learning to read
Ensuring that children’s phonic knowledge and skills are built up
systematically, with storybooks and electronic activities of gradually
increasing complexity and length, and thereby providing opportunities for
children to progress rapidly and achieve fluency in the expected timescale.
This product has been designed for the teaching of discrete, daily sessions
progressing from simple to more complex phonic knowledge and skills and covering
the major grapheme/phoneme correspondences by:
•
Presenting a carefully structured sequence of ‘focus phonics’, allowing
teaching to progress from simple to more complex phonic knowledge and
•
•
skills
Providing storybooks and electronic activities that have been carefully
designed to ensure a very gradual and sequential build-up in children’s
phonic knowledge, in line with the guidance in Letters and Sounds
Ensuring that the teaching activities and ideas, both on the CD-ROMs and in
the Teaching Notes booklets, fit easily into the model of discrete daily phonics
sessions as well as being easy to use for extension and follow-up work at
other times (e.g. in group work, guided reading, take-home reading, etc.)
This product enables children’s progress to be assessed by:
Including easy-to-use interactive initial and end-of-stage assessments on the
e-Songbirds CD-ROMs, which automatically record the results for individual
children
• Providing a gently stepped progression of focus phonics within the
storybooks, together with guidance in the Teaching Notes to help teachers to
assess children’s phonic knowledge and skills as they progress through the
programme.
Further phonics assessment support for Songbirds is provided in Oxford Reading
Tree Assess and Progress.
•
This product uses a multi-sensory approach so that children learn variously from
simultaneous visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities which are designed to secure
essential phonic knowledge and skills by:
Promoting visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning through the use of the eSongbirds CD-ROMs, which include audio, animations and plenty of
opportunity for hands-on learning in the form of accessible whiteboard tools
and interactive activities
• Teaching the link between phonemes and graphemes (sounds and letters)
through fun animations, audio and memorable jingles
• Providing talking story versions of selected storybooks on the e-Songbirds
CD-ROMs, for children to explore and revisit at their own pace
Providing guidance in the Teaching Notes and inside-cover parent notes on focused
multi-sensory activities to support children’s phonic learning with the storybooks.
•
This product demonstrates that phonemes should be blended, in order, from left to
right, ‘all through the word’ for reading by:
•
•
•
Providing e-Songbirds CD-ROMs which help to teach blending by displaying
words from the word bank for children to sound out and blend together, and
by using the interactive phoneme frame for children to practise sounding out
and blending
Providing opportunities on the e-Songbirds CD-ROMs for children to practise
blending using independent activities such as the ‘Word Sort’ or ‘Finish It!’
blending activities linked to each book
Supporting teachers, teaching assistants and parents through advice and
activities to help teach blending, in the Teaching Notes and inside-cover
parent notes.
This product demonstrates how words can be segmented into their constituent
phonemes for spelling and that this is the reverse of blending phonemes to read
words by:
•
•
•
•
Providing on the e-Songbirds CD-ROMs a picture bank for teaching and
practising segmenting, which allows children to segment words into their
constituent sounds and then write and check the words using the whiteboard
tools
Providing an interactive phoneme frame for teaching and practising
segmenting
Providing on the e-Songbirds CD-ROMs opportunities for independent
practice of segmenting, with the ‘Anagram’ or ‘Phoneme Frame’ segmenting
activities linked with each book
Supporting teachers, teaching assistants and parents through advice and
activities to help teach segmenting, in the Teaching Notes and inside-cover
parent notes.
This product ensures that children apply phonic knowledge and skills as their first
approach to reading and spelling even if a word is not completely phonically regular
by:
•
•
•
Demonstrating, by use of the e-Songbirds CD-ROMs, the explicit usefulness
of phonic knowledge as the way into reading
Offering a range of activities on the e-Songbirds CD-ROMs that support a
phonic approach to spelling, including structured activities for blending and
segmenting words of increasing phonic complexity
Including a few ‘context’ words in many of the storybooks, which are not
completely phonically regular, and supporting children’s reading of these
words by suggesting appropriate phonics-based strategy checks and prompts
in the Teaching Notes and inside-cover parent notes.
•
This product ensures that children are taught high frequency words that
do not conform completely to grapheme/phoneme correspondence rules
by:
•
Introducing high frequency words and context words in a gradual and
controlled way in the storybooks
•
Including talking story versions of selected storybooks on the e-Songbirds
CD-ROMs which make it easy to introduce high frequency words to the
whole class before reading
•
Building into the Teaching Notes and inside-cover parent notes guidance
on introducing high frequency words before reading the story, including
looking for decodable elements within the words.
This product provides fidelity to the teaching framework for the duration of the
programme, to ensure that these irregular words are fully learnt by:
•
Ensuring that the storybooks and CD-ROM activities increase gradually in
length and complexity as children progress through the programme,
including increasing numbers of words that include alternative spellings
for the same sounds
•
Adhering to the structure and progression set out in Letters and Sounds
throughout the programme, so that grapheme-phoneme correspondences
are taught consistently throughout and non-decodable high frequency
words are introduced systematically
•
Providing increasing opportunities, as the programme develops, to
encounter and learn high-frequency and context words that are not
straightforwardly decodable, using phonic strategies as the first approach
to tackling unfamiliar words.
This product ensures that, as pupils move through the early stages of acquiring
phonics, they are invited to practise by reading texts which are entirely decodable for
them, so that they experience success and learn to rely on phonemic strategies by:
•
Introducing the focus phonics for each storybook in advance of reading
the book, thereby ensuring that the highly decodable text of each book is
well matched to children’s current phonic knowledge and skills, so that
children can confidently and successfully apply their knowledge and skills
•
Consistently introducing, applying and reinforcing phonic strategies to
help children tackle any unfamiliar words.
Please provide a brief explanation of what your product provides, e.g.
resources, training etc
Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds comprises:
• Three interactive eSongbirds CD-ROMs to teach systematically the 44
phonemes and their graphemes through alphabet rhymes, talking stories and
activities
• 60 phonic storybooks by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo, with
enjoyable and funny stories that are motivating and fun to read as well as
decodable at the relevant Phase of Letters and Sounds
Teaching support in the form of 10 Teaching Notes booklets, one for each set of 6
storybooks, and notes for parents inside the covers of each storybook.