Reception and KS1

We follow the Read Write Inc. scheme to help our children to become fluid, confident readers and as a result become independent readers and writers. It is our intent to encourage children to fall in love with reading.

During their phonics lessons, the children are introduced to a new sound.  This is reviewed in isolation and in the context of CVC and CVCC words. Children also revise previously taught sounds to ensure these become embedded in their long-term memory.  Children are taught to segment and blend words through a variety of approaches, including guided, modelled through ‘Fred Talk’ and independent tasks using ‘Fred in your Head’ and a ‘Speedy Read’.  Such strategies equip children with the skills needed to become confident, competent and independent readers. 

Our phonics programme is tailored to meet the individual needs of our children and we promote the sentiment, “Keep up, not catch up.”  Therefore, any gaps in the children’s phonics learning are identified and addressed through individual interventions to ensure their specific needs are met. Ultimately, supporting children to become independent and avid readers is the aim of our Read Write Inc. programme, as we believe reading is a vital skill which is fundamental to our children’s future happiness and functioning within our society.

Children are provided with books which closely matched to their phonics knowledge. This enables the children to connect the sounds they are learning with mnemonic pictures, words with their meanings and stories with the sounds that they know. Children take home phonetically decodable books, which can be read independently by the children. This will instil confidence in our pupils and facilitate their fluency in reading.

Reading in KS2

In addition to the English Curriculum, whole class reading sessions are delivered to children in KS2, where children will either study the class novel or will explore a range of different text extracts. Here the focus is on skills such as summarising, retrieving, making inferences / predictions, exploring vocabulary, authorial intent, development of plot, themes and characters. A variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts are accessible to ensure the reading objectives can be taught effectively.

Children in KS2 who have completed the phonics programme will choose a reading book which is broadly in line with their reading ability. Parents are encouraged to make a comment in their home diaries to keep school up to date with how children are reading at home. We expect children to bring their reading books into school every day.

Reading for pleasure

To encourage a love of reading, children are encouraged to use our school library which allows them to be exposed to a range of texts. Throughout the year, we have a range of experiences to develop a love of reading e.g. book in a box trail, book fairs, world book day celebrations etc.