Phonics and Reading
Phonics - Read Write Inc.
We use a scheme known as Read Write Inc. It is a systematic phonics and reading programme that is great fun and very pacey. Our children are organised in ability groups for reading and have a Read Write Inc lesson each morning. The groups vary in size. We assess pupils regularly and re-group them when they have made progress.The children start by learning the 44 'Speed Sounds', which have corresponding pictures.
Once they have learnt their sounds, they learn to read words using sound-blending. The children know this as 'Fred Talk'. They use 'Fred Talk' to read lively stories and then they talk about what has happened in the books. They also write about the stories using their 'Fred Fingers' to identify the separate sounds needed to spell each word. Partner work is key to our reading programme so that the children get to answer every question from the teacher, practise every activity and practise their sentences before they write them.
Reading
"Reading is the one ability that, once set in motion, has the capacity to feed itself, to grow exponentially, producing a base from which the possibilities are infinite." ~ Michael Morpurgo
Reading is the most important skill that children must master during their time at primary school. Reading opens up the doors to the whole world of learning. At Blackthorn Primary, we aim to make sure that every child learns to read. We rely on the parents of our pupils to help us in this task by; listening to their child read every night; talking to them about books and reading stories to their children.
Once children are confident readers, they begin English lessons where they have the opportunity to read a wide range of different texts written by lots of different authors. They have guided reading sessions in small groups, where they have a chance to sit with their teacher and discuss their understanding of the book.
How can you help your child to make good progress in reading?
- Read stories and talk about books with your child
- Attend our parent phonics sessions
- Learn the correct pronunciation of each sound by visiting this website and practise these with your child.
- Do not teach your child letter names until they are taught them in school. Research shows that children who are taught the names of letters rather than the sounds can often find it harder to learn to read.
- Listen to your child read the book that they are sent home from school for ten minutes every night in a quiet room. The books that are sent home have already been read by your child at school.
- They should find them quite straight forward and enjoyable to read.
- If you have any questions no matter how silly you may think they are, please ask your child’s class teacher.
Please access further information about RWI here.
Click here to see how you can support your child at home with Phonics.
Reading
At Blackthorn Primary School we aspire for every child to become a reader and to keep them reading. Our reading curriculum aims to develop confident, fluent readers who read for understanding and to broaden their knowledge of the world through books.
How do we teach reading?
- A dedicated daily RWI lesson, for EYFS, KS1 and those requiring additional support in KS2, enables children to build phonic knowledge to support them as readers.
- Children’s learning in English is structured through Reading Journeys so that over time the children build experience of a wide range of texts from the best children’s literature has to offer.
- Blackthorn’s Reading Strategy implements the Reading Journey and structures the daily teaching of vocabulary and comprehension.
- Vocabulary is explicitly taught each week in every class and displayed for children to practice using independently.
- Reading question stems for KS1 and KS2 promote the development of a range of comprehension skills.
- Reading fluency is intentionally developed in EYFS and KS1 through RWI and in KS2 through the revisiting of texts.
- Children develop stamina as readers through the Reading Challenges.
- Every child has a reading scheme book at their reading level; to read to an adult in school each week and take home to share with family.
- Reading is developed and extended through the wider curriculum.
- Every class has book time at the end of the day where story themes and characters are explored, enjoyed and discussed.
- Every child accesses the school’s library each week.
- Reading and the enjoyment of books is celebrated by everyone at Blackthorn Primary School
Click here to download the Reading Journey for each year group.
Writing
At Blackthorn Primary School we aim for every child to become a fluent and confident communicator of language, who can express themselves articulately in both their spoken and written language. Through a text rich curriculum, we are determined for every child to leave us in Year 6 able to write skilfully, independently utilising a range of genre and for a variety of purposes.
How do we teach writing?
- Developing communication and language begins as a core priority of EYFS along with specialist speech and language support.
- Children’s learning in English is structured through Reading Journeys so that over time the children have opportunities to write about and be inspired by a wide range of the best children’s literature there is to offer.
- Blackthorn’s Writing Strategy structures the daily teaching of writing and is based on the Reading Journey texts.
- Progression of grammar and punctuation skills is mapped from Year 1 to Year 6 so that children revisit and build on knowledge over time.
- Weekly opportunities to apply knowledge of grammar and punctuation to a variety of contexts, forms part of the school’s Writing Strategy.
- A dedicated daily RWI lesson, for EYFS, KS1 and those requiring additional support in KS2, enables children to build phonic knowledge to support them as writers.
- Spelling in KS2 is taught discretely through the structured scheme Get Spelling, in order to systematically build on phonic knowledge learned in Key Stage 1 through RWI.
- Writing fluency is developed through the use of Kinetic Letters as a structured approach for teaching handwriting
- Writing skills are applied and extended through the wider curriculum.
- We recognise that reading and writing as symbiotic and so the links with the reading curriculum are significant and valued at Blackthorn. As such our aims for reading influence and compliment the aims for writing and vice versa.