Phonics
Phonics is the basic foundation of the skill of reading. The magic happens when children first realise they can actually recognise a grapheme and read a word. This, coupled with creating a love of books within children is the perfect blend of skill and enjoyment of being able to read. They are able to access an endless world of knowledge and escape into far away distant lands, meeting all kinds of wonderful characters. Shakespeare School strives to instil a love of books and the desire to read for enjoyment. We are determined to ensure that all children are equipped with the decoding and comprehension skills so that children are able and inspired to pick up a book, secure in the knowledge that they will be able to read effortlessly and become immersed in the text.
How we teach reading using the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme - answers for parents
Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends upon it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.
We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why at Shakepeare, we priorities making sure they develop a love of books as well as learning to read.
All of our staff have been trained to teach reading in the way we do it in this school. We believe that it is very important that all the teachers and teaching assistants work in the same way. As a school, we have ensured RWI training has been delivered to the whole school and continue to work alongside the English Hub and RWI development team. RWI training is continously followed up by the Reading Team in school who support teachers ensuring that the children are learning phonics in the way we want them to learn.
How will my child be taught to read?
We start by teaching phonics through the Read Write Inc scheme to the children in our Reception classes.
This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down as soon as they start school. 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. Ask them to show you what these are.
The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’.
The children practise their reading with books which are closely matched to the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. This ensures that our children develop confidence and independence quickly.
The teachers read to the children everyday, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.
How will I know how well my child is doing?
We will always let you know how well your child is progressing. As a school, we use various forms of assessment to find out how the children are getting on in Phonics. We use the RWI assessment portal to track progess closely. This information supports teachers in deciding which RWI group they should be in. RWI groups are flexible and regularly reviewed. This means your child will work with children who are at the same reading level. Children who are making slower progress in their reading and need extra daily practise in reading sounds and words will require overlearning to secure their phonics knowledge. Therefore, your child will have one-to-one support and access other interventions if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up.
We also use a reading test in Year 1 and 2 so that we can make sure that all our children are at the level that they should be for their age compared to all the children across the country.
In the Summer term, the government asks us to complete a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. That gives us extra information about their progress and is shared with you.
By the end of Year 2, your child should be able to read aloud books that are at the right level for their age with increased fluency
See below our 'sticky knowledge' maps for Early Reading and Phonics.
Reading Comprehension
FAMILY FUN WITH PHONICS FEEDBACK
"Great session! So useful!"
"Really enjoyed the session. It helped me understand more of the phonics to help my daughter."
"It was lovely to be back in school and we both really enjoyed it. Thank you for organising."
FAMILY FUN WITH PHONICS FEEDBACK
" Lovely morning watching all the children having fun whilst learning... Taken some great ideas for home learning! Here's to more 'in school' fun activities!"
"All the games were really imaginative but simple enough to replicate at home... Really enjoyed coming in to see my daughter."
"The session was very interesting and it was good to see how the children learn in school. Thank you."
"In such a short time I learned a lot. Thank you. Hopefully more to come and thank you Miss Hayton for your time."