Reading
Reading at Willow Brook - Rationale
At Willow Brook Primary School we love reading and so do our pupils. We are passionate about instilling a love of reading within our children and we work tirelessly to ensure that reading is a subject they love.
Nursery
As soon as your child enters Nursery with us we begin having discussions about the sounds they hear around them.
This means helping them to identify and isolate specific sounds within the environment such as animal noises, a car horn and people laughing.
We encourage body percussion through clapping and stamping as well as enjoying rhyming songs and stories together. Many of the games and activities within the classroom include strategies to support visual memory and fine motor skills, all of which form part of early literacy skills.
When your child is ready, they are encouraged to hear the initial sound in words and begin using the RWI (Read Write Inc Phonics) strategies that they will become very familiar with once in Reception.
To encourage reading, we tell stories using puppets, props and pictures.
Children use resources to retell stories, and have access to a range of non-fiction texts; for example, having DIY/toy catalogues in our role play areas. As well as this, torches and finger lights are used by the children to highlight texts and pictures which they really enjoy.
Reception
Reading is taught through ‘Read Write Inc Phonics’ (RWI) from the start of Reception. We begin by teaching the graphemes (sounds) to go along with the sounds your child has already started to identify in words. Firstly, they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these into words, and then they learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes. Your child will read in 1:1 and small groups depending on the learning needs of the child.
Our children love learning to read through RWI and we love to watch their confidence and love of reading grow from the start. Phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases. Along with a thought-provoking introduction, prompts for thinking out loud and discussion, children are helped to read with a storyteller’s voice.
When using RWI your child will:
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learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
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learn to read words using Fred Talk
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read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out
Reception builds on early language development in several key ways. Within the first few weeks, every child completes the Nuffield Early Language Intervention speech and language screener to provide assessments and tailored support for communication skills. Alongside this, parents receive regular feedback, and individual pupils benefit from targeted one-to-one phonics support. Each child takes home phonics cards and high-frequency words stored in a “tin” plus two reading books to encourage early reading at home. In Reception they have a Talking Stories curriculum to build comprehension skills at a whole class level. In addition, key words are taught explicitly and planned into the week. We also have Talk 4 writing which is an oracy based approach to writing that has a well planned suite of Reading texts over the year.
Furthermore, our role play areas encourage a love of reading as children often have the opportunity to retell and act out the stories they have read as well as recite facts they’ve learnt from our non-fiction books.
Your child will take home several reading books each week, including one at their individual level, which they are encouraged to read to an adult, as well as books from the book corner which are for them to enjoy as a family.
Year 1 and 2
Years 1 and 2 build on these skills with daily phonics tutoring, support from teaching assistants, and inclusion in our Talking stories whole class reading lessons.
We use RWI resources and SHINE interventions to support struggling readers, alongside speech and language therapy where needed. Children practice sight vocabulary and read daily, embedding fluency and comprehension. Children continue to take home high frequency words in a tin to support their reading.
Key Stage 2
Throughout Key Stage 2, reading accuracy and comprehension skills continue to be taught through Daily Reading. However, for those that need it, we continue to support the development of children’s phonological knowledge and understanding through small group and 1:1 phonics interventions.
Daily Reading takes place every day; the children will work as a whole class, in groups, in pairs and individually to discuss and unpick the text.
Throughout Key Stage 2, whole class reading becomes fully embedded within our daily reading lessons. Within these lessons, children are continually exposed to high quality literature, have the opportunity to develop their fluency and are encouraged to explore their skills in thinking aloud and internally whilst reading. In order to become more analytical, written responses to evidence-based questions and book talk are modelled and analysed before children apply this process independently.
During daily reading lessons, children will be taught several different aspects of reading including: vocabulary, prior knowledge, whole class discussion, fluency and explicit teaching of comprehension strategies.
Vocabulary
In order to fully comprehend a text, children need to have a secure understanding of at least 95% of the vocabulary within it. Every lesson will include a consistent approach to teaching vocabulary across the school with teachers following a script to ensure children can understand unfamiliar words within the lesson’s text.
Prior Knowledge
Accessing children’s prior knowledge or giving children the prior knowledge needed to understand a text is paramount in developing children as readers.
Without this, children will struggle to make connections and understand the context in which characters and stories are set.
When introducing a new text, fiction or nonfiction, teachers will provide the background information needed for children to be able to fully comprehend.
Book talk is essential to ensure that our children take part in open discussions about high quality, worthwhile texts; subsequently developing their ability to read critically and deepen their understanding and therefore appreciation.
Children are encouraged to build and challenge their peer’s ideas, using evidence from the text to support their opinions.
This is also an opportunity for children to explore and justify their opinions, make connections, summarise, ask questions and make predictions.
Fluency
Our fluency lessons within Daily Reading, enable children to hear an expert model engaging intonation, expression, accuracy and automaticity.
Children learn how to echo and choral read, rehearse text with a partner and then use their fluency to aid their comprehension.
Every day the children listen to their teacher reading the Whole Class Book which provides children with the opportunity to hear a variety of high-quality texts being read aloud and discussed.
Independent Reading - A Simple view of Reading
Every day all children take part in independent reading which we call A Simple View of Reading; a time for children to really relax and get stuck into a book type they love for an extended period of time. During this time, class teachers spend time with individual children, talking to them about their book, listening to them read as well as discussing any struggles that they are having with reading.
All classrooms have an enticing book corner full of books that are matched to the levels and interests of the children within their class. These books are frequently swapped with those from the library so that children have an ever-changing selection of books to choose from. As well as this, we have school librarians who work together with the reading lead to ensure that we have books that match all of the children’s interests. Each librarian acts as an advocate for their class by bringing book suggestions or recommendations to the librarian’s weekly meeting so that they can then be purchased.
Every fortnight the whole school enjoys a Reading Assembly. This is an opportunity to introduce children to different authors and book genres and for new additions to the library to be shown to the school. Our children love the Reading Assembly; it is something that the whole school looks forward to!
Assessment
We assess all children formally once a term from Year 1 to 6 using an NTS assessment test.
This enable us to benchmark them against other children nationally and to analyse the areas of reading that they find difficult in order to adjust support and planning in class. In addition, we assess our children’s reading using the Accelerated Reader programme reports and through our daily reading support in the Simple View of Reading session.
Read Write Inc. Phonics: a guide for parents
Welcome to the Read Write Inc. page on Oxford Owl for Home.
Read Write Inc. is a popular phonics scheme.
Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing.
Read Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words). The children will quickly feel confident and successful.
Click on the picture to view the website.
