Reading and Phonics
INTENT
Why do we teach this? Why do we teach it in the way we do?
At Woodlands, we aim to provide children with a literacy-rich environment, high quality texts and inspiring learning opportunities, which will help them to:
- Gain a love of reading and books.
- Read accurately, fluently and with understanding;
- Apply a knowledge of structured synthetic phonics in order to decode unfamiliar words with increasing accuracy and speed;
- Be able to read with expression, clarity and confidence;
- Develop a good linguistic knowledge of vocabulary and grammar;
- Read and respond to a wide range of different types of texts;
- Develop a deeper level of emotional intelligence and empathy;
- Read fluently, and with confidence, in any subject.
IMPLEMENTATION
What do we teach? What does this look like?
Phonics
We use Read Write Inc.to support our teaching of phonics. All children from Reception to Year 4 are screened on a half termly basis and placed into the appropriate group that matches their phonetic and reading development. In Years 5 and 6, children still requiring phonics teaching follow the Fresh Start modules (part of Read Write Inc) and are assessed at the end of each half term. Teachers and teaching assistants teach the groups and there is a 40-minute phonics and reading lesson 5 times per week. Those children who have exited the programme work in a comprehension / spelling group following the RWI Comprehension units and Spelling programme.
Reading sessions at Woodlands
From Year 2 to Year 6, we have adopted a shared approach to reading at Woodlands. Our reading sessions place a strong emphasis on developing fluency, accuracy and pace, with regular opportunities for pupils to listen to and echo fluent reading, practise repeated reading and develop confidence when reading aloud. Timed reading opportunities help pupils to build automaticity and fluency while maintaining accuracy and understanding. Alongside this, pupils are explicitly taught and given opportunities to apply a range of reading strategies across different strands, including retrieval, vocabulary, inference, prediction, sequencing and explaining, enabling them to develop the skills needed to understand, discuss and respond thoughtfully to a wide range of texts.
Home Reading
The best way to support your child in developing their reading skills, and indeed their learning across the curriculum, is to hear them read, share books together and talk about a variety of texts as often as possible. Children at Woodlands are expected to read at least three times per week, although we encourage families to aim for five times a week wherever possible.
We encourage children to experience a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts to develop their fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and enjoyment of reading. This may include story books, chapter books, poetry, information books, magazines, newspapers, recipes, instructions, leaflets, comics and age-appropriate online texts. Reading does not always need to involve a whole book. Sharing a short text, discussing a newspaper article or reading information together can all provide valuable opportunities to develop reading skills. Once children have read at home with an adult, we ask that this is recorded in their home-school reading diary.
As part of our whole-school reading reward charts, three rewards are agreed at the beginning of each half term. These are designed to celebrate children's commitment to reading and are non-screen-based experiences, such as choosing a class story, having extra time on the playground, choosing a classroom activity or enjoying some additional time for a favourite reading activity.
On Fridays, children's reading diaries are checked and those who have read three or more times move up the reading chart. It is a real pleasure to celebrate the children who show such enthusiasm, commitment and dedication to their reading and reach the top of the chart by the end of the half term.
Reading events
Throughout the year, many events are planned to encourage, inspire and promote reading across our school. As often as possible, we like to invite our older children to share and enjoy stories with our younger children to promote reading for pleasure. Along with this, we have author of the month, world book day and read aloud day events, weekly library visits, visits to our own school library and authors visits to help motivate our children to read.
Storytime At Woodlands
Click on the links below to listen to a story with your child.
Small Knight and George (Mr Barnes favourite!)
Goldilocks, A Cautionary Tale of Internet Uploads
