We are passionate about ensuring that all children learn to be fluent readers who can comprehend and discuss a wide range of texts.
We begin our teaching of reading in nursery where children discover letter sounds around them and start to understand their meaning. We use the ‘Launchpad to Literacy’ resource to support with this. Children practise lots of oral blending in preparation for starting formal phonics teaching in Reception.
From Reception and through KS1 we follow the Read, Write, Inc (RWI) Phonics programme. This ensures that all children are systematically taught a programme of synthetic phonics and enables them all to decode words rapidly and accurately. Children are regularly assessed using the Online Assessment Tool for RWI. Children change groups accordingly and gaps in sound knowledge are used to inform next step teaching for groups.
The Online Portal for RWI also allows us to access a phonics virtual classroom. Year 1 use this to facilitate an additional ‘speed sound’ practice each afternoon. Children are also given QR codes to take home so they can access the virtual classroom videos.
Where children are not assessing at the required level at each assessment point, targeted intervention is put in place to accelerate their progress. We aim for children to keep up, not catch up.
Some children in KS2 may still need daily phonics teaching. In year 3, they may still access the KS1 groups. For children in years 4,5 and 6 we use the Fresh Start Programme from RWI.
All of our phonic teachers attend official RWI training and then continue to develop their practice through using online training videos, regular coaching and group training meetings.
To support reading at home, each child takes home a fully decodable book which is carefully matched to their phonic knowledge. These start as simple books with a simple word on each page through to longer stories. We also have a range of non-fiction RWI texts that supplement the story books. Once children reach a certain level in RWI, they also take home a list of ‘red’ words (those that cannot be decoded) and a ‘speedy words’ list. This is to enable children to begin reading some simpler words on sight. This aims to develop reading fluency alongside decoding.
In Reception and year 1 children also follow the ‘Talk Through Stories’ programme which helps to develop a wider reading diet, love of story and introduce fluency and comprehension.
From year 2 onwards children begin to move to guided reading which includes further development of fluency and comprehension and a wide range of fiction and non fiction texts. This also progresses into the KS2 guided reading programme as detailed in our reading ‘subject on a page’.