Reading & Phonics
Miss Nixon in our early reading and phonics lead.
Miss Tomlinson is our reading leader.
At Pearson Primary School, we aim for children to become independent and confident readers with a lifelong love of reading. We are committed to making sure that every child is a confident and fluent reader so that they can access all areas of the curriculum.
Emergent and early readers of all ages learn to read phonetically matched books from Read, Write, Inc. They take three books home weekly.
- The phonetically matched reading book that they have read in school through the Read, Write, Inc programme. This is the child’s ‘Time to Shine!’
- The phonetically matched link Book Bag Book from Read, Write, Inc. This is the child’s practice book and is linked to the book that they have learned to read in school.
- A non-decodable book to share and enjoy with friends and family at home. This will be a lovely book of your child’s choice that we would use for story time at school.
Books available in classroom book corners are carefully chosen to promote a love of reading and to expand children’s reading in wider areas of the curriculum.
When children finish the Read, Write, Inc phonics and reading programme they will start to read ‘real’ books and bring them home in their book bags. This is an exciting time for our children and we work hard to encourage them to choose books that spark their interest and develop a love of reading. Alongside this, we also recognise the need to continue to scaffold reading choices for some children to build their stamina and fluency. These ‘practice’ books are matched to the child’s fluency level and will be from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. Most children will read these books for a short period of time as they act as a bridging scheme between Read, Write, Inc and ‘real’ books.
EYFS
In the Foundation Stage, we start teaching phonics immediately. Children have daily phonics lessons and are encouraged to practice the skills of reading throughout the whole day. The environment is language rich and supports children to practice being active and independent readers. Children enjoy daily stories and are encouraged to participate in role play and activities linked to their class book.
Children in EYFS have a weekly library session to choose additional books to enjoy and share with their family.
Lower School Reading (Years 1-3)
Children take part in daily Read, Write, Inc. phonics and reading lessons. Story time is timetabled daily and care is taken to choose books that expose children to a range of authors who represent the cultural diversity in the community and broaden children’s knowledge and experience of the world, as well as promoting high aspirations.
An additional whole class reading lesson takes place every afternoon to strengthen the children’s reading skills and comprehension skills across all the content domains.
All children are expected to become fluent readers and so teachers’ provide additional ‘keep up’ sessions in the afternoon and 1:1 reading champions for children, to ensure that they read frequently and make rapid progress.
Upper School Reading (Years 4-6)
Children take part in daily whole class reading lessons. The focus is on developing key reading skills through a quality class text. Sequences of learning support children to focus on one content domain for a number of lessons, learning a new skill within a familiar text before applying their learning to more demanding and less familiar texts.
Additional daily story time is timetabled and care is taken to choose books that promote understanding of topical issues, challenge perceptions and provoke meaningful debate.
The school day is extended to provide reading intervention for children who are not yet fluently reading or who require additional support to keep up with the expected comprehension standard. This is an invitation only session that begins at 8:15 each morning.
Reading with your child
Reading with your child is vital. Research shows that it is one of the most important things you can do to help your child’s education.
Reading is a key skill that enables your child to access the whole curriculum. In school we encourage everyone to discover the pleasure books can give. We explain that books are not just for reading words on a page but that they can present new ideas and topics for us all to discuss and learn from.
Every day in school we ask your children to read in a variety of contexts, for example, to follow instructions, to solve problems, to research or to read for pleasure. In addition, we hear your children read during reading sessions and on an individual basis as appropriate.
We hope that at some point during the week, you and your child manage to find time to share a book and investigate print that surrounds us in our everyday lives. You may like to share a picture book, comic, magazine, poetry book, an information text… the list is endless!
Julia Donaldson’s Top Tips for Parents
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At Pearson Primary, we aim for children to become independent and confident readers with a lifelong love of reading.
We try to give children as many opportunities as possible to read so that they read fluently before leaving our school.
As a parent/carer, there are several ways you can help your child develop their reading skills:
- Make reading and looking at books fun – talk about the characters and what might happen next.
- Try to read with them daily – set aside a special time for reading together.
- Discuss any areas they are interested in and try to provide books that follow his/her interests.
- Try to ensure your child has access to books in different rooms in the home.
- If English is not your family’s first language, try to discuss books in any language. Staff in school will support the children with reading in English.
- Discuss your child’s progress with the school – if you need support with reading in English, staff in school are more than happy to support the family in any way they can. Opportunities for children to read in breakfast club are also available daily.
- Visit the library.
Phonics & Reading
At Pearson Primary School we teach phonics and reading through the Read, Write, Inc. programme (RWI). We make sure that everyone can learn to read at Pearson by adapting the delivery of the programme to suit the needs of every child. This means that some children are taught in smaller groups or one to one so that everyone can keep up and be a confident reader.
What is Read Write Inc?
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a systematic synthetic phonics programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin.
Pupils are formatively assessed in every lesson and summatively on a half-termly basis using the RWI assessment grids. This ensures that all pupils are in the correct groups and allows the Reading Lead and Leadership Team to monitor pupil progress.
All staff members at Pearson, including the Leadership Team, have completed the RWI training. Miss Nixon, the Lead Teacher supports the development of the scheme through observing sessions, offering guidance and creating clear next steps for the scheme at Pearson. In addition, Miss Nixon offers weekly professional development for teachers.
Children learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes. We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’, ’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily. Sounds are grouped into set 1, 2 and 3.
Children experience success from the very beginning. Engaging phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words. Children become fluent readers through repetition of stories and having home reading books that are closely matched to their class text.
Parent Workshops
Our Early Reading and Phonics Lead holds phonics and reading workshops in September to continue to help you understand Read Write Inc and how you can support your child/ren with phonics and reading at home as they move in to their new year group.
