Reading

At Weston Point Primary School, reading is central to our curriculum. We recognise the cultural, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual development that pupils achieve through reading. Reading is the vehicle which enables pupils to both acquire knowledge and understanding as well as build upon what they already know. It is essential to the skills underpinning all aspects of communication, including spoken language and writing. Our programme of study allows pupils to develop an appreciation and love of reading across a wide range of genres as well as fiction and non-fiction. This breadth of exposure feeds children’s imaginations, allows them to step into other worlds and experiences and opens up a treasure trove of wonder and joy for curious young minds.

Early Reading:

At Weston Point Primary Academy, we follow the Read Write Inc (RWInc) Phonics/Reading scheme.

Read, Write Inc is a highly successful phonics programme for children aged 4 to 7 who are learning to read and write. It teaches children how to both decode and understand written language to become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. This is achieved by a dynamic approach to teaching phonics that is consistent across the school using the Read, Write Inc phonics resources and fully decodable reading books.

Children are grouped according to their ability in Early Years and Key Stage 1 to ensure that teaching is matched to their level. Phonics in Early Years and Key Stage 1 takes place on a daily basis. Children in Key Stage 2 that still require phonics teaching, continue with a specially tailored programme (RWInc) to meet their individual needs. 

Shared Reading forms part of the daily phonics lessons and is led by the reading teachers. Each child reads for at least 20 minutes every day, in a small group with their reading teacher. All texts are linked to the child's phonic ability. Children enjoy one focus text per week and learning activities support accurate and fluent reading to facilitate comprehension. In addition, children take fully decodable reading books home to further practice skills learnt at school. These books are matched to each child's phonics ability and are closely monitored by the reading teachers to ensure that children are reading books of an appropriate level. Each child visits the school library every week or fortnightly to select a book of their choice to share at home. Visits to the school library are quality sessions where children explore and discover books by different authors and of different genres. 

How will my child be taught to read?

We teach the children phonics straight away in Reception. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the (Phonemes) sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down (Graphemes). This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well.

We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Once the children have learnt to blend accurately, they start to read with fluency. This is achieved through speedy reading of individual words and repeated reads of their shared reading books. 'Tricky words' such as 'once' 'said' 'the' are not phonetically decodable and these are taught explicitly as part of the reading session.  

To develop the children's love of stories, we have dedicated story time, across all Key Stages, daily. The teachers read to the children, introducing them to a variety of stories, poetry and information books - and authors. They acquire new vocabulary through teaching, which focuses on embedding new words into their autographic memory. 

Children who join the School throughout the year are quickly assessed in phonics and grouped according to their ability. Children in Early Years and Key Stage 1, and those in Key Stage 2 who still require phonics, are assessed and regrouped every half term to ensure they receive the correct level of support and challenge. If children are not where we would expect them to be at certain points in the year, they will have daily extra phonics practise with their Reading Tutor, to secure progress. Every child learns to read and becomes a reader!

Read, Write Inc. has 5 underlying principles – the five Ps:

1. PACE – no time is wasted during teaching sessions! Children are active and involved in a fun and creative way. The aim is for the children to complete the programme as quickly as possible.
2. PRAISE – teachers praise the children constantly throughout the teaching sessions. Children learn more quickly when they are praised for what they do well, rather than nagged for what they do wrong. The children are encouraged to praise each other and as a school we have developed several ‘Praise Phrases’ and ‘Praise actions’. Ask your child to demonstrate!
3. PURPOSE – each activity has a very clear purpose. The teacher will set this purpose at the beginning of the lesson so that the children know exactly what they will be learning.
4. PARTICIPATION – all children take part in all parts of the lesson. Full participation is gained through partner work and choral response.
5. PASSION – as a staff we are passionate about our teaching and the benefits of the Read, Write Inc. programme! We love teaching the sessions and this enthusiasm rubs off onto the children.

Follow the link below for a guide to Read Write Inc. Phonics:

Parent guide to Read Write Inc. Phonics - Oxford Owl

Literary Leaves

Children progress from learning to read through RWInc to being taught using whole class guided reading sessions through a cycle of fiction, non-fiction and poetry/ mixed media. During this cycle, the children will immerse themselves in a fiction or non-fiction text from the successful Literary Leaves scheme. This scheme allows children to develop a wide range of skills through high quality texts. These skills include prediction, factual retrieval, inference, vocabulary, explanation, summarising and sequencing. As well as this, the children will practise and apply their reading skills through other media. This cycle ensures that the children are constantly being exposed to a range of genres and text types.