Reading

Key Stage 1 and 2 Reading Progression

Oracy is vital to learning from and about ourselves and our world. We approach the acquisition of language with care. We want to teach our children to talk about what matters to them with clarity, but also to learn from and through talk. We want all of our children to be able to use language to think, learn, create, and communicate (with compassion, empathy, and articulacy). It underpins most learning and much of our daily lives. It has an important place in our curriculum.

In literacy we aim for:
READING – ENJOYMENT, ACCURACY, COMPREHENSION
WRITING – ACCURACY, CREATIVITY, STYLE

Phonics

Early reading is taught using synthetic phonics as the main approach to reading. Pupils are systematically taught the phonemes (sounds), how to blend the sounds for reading, and how to segment the sounds in order to write and spell words. They are taught to use their phonic skills and knowledge as their first approach to reading but are also taught high frequency/’tricky’ words that cannot be decoded.

We strive to get all of our children reading and writing as quickly as possible. The foundations of reading and writing are taught through the Read, Write, Inc phonics programme. It offers a fast-paced, structured phonics and writing programme that aims to get children reading and writing as soon as possible. It is used alongside lots of opportunities to hear, read and respond to high-quality, much-loved children’s texts.

For those who struggle, there are individual intervention schemes to support them. For those who do not learn to read using synthetic phonics, we create a bespoke programme to help them move on.

Read, Write, Inc Phonics is accredited by the Department for Education.

A reader needs to acquire these skills before they can progress in reading:
• learn that sounds are represented by written letters
• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
• learn how to blend sounds
• learn to read words using ‘Fred Talk’ (blending sounds)
• read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out
• show that they comprehend the stories by answering questions.

Early writers need to:
• learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent 44 sounds.
• learn to write words by saying the sounds
• write simple sentences

You can read more about the programme here: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

Read Write Inc Phoneme Pronunciation Video Guide

Moving on from Read, Write, Inc
Once children have acquired the basic skills of reading and understanding text, they are taught using group and class texts and novels. There is always a class novel for children to listen to as well as group texts that children read together. Books are treasured and celebrated at Boscastle School.

Being a confident and fluent reader provides a child with the opportunity to learn across the curriculum, to learn about themselves and others, about life, to seek help and to relax. Each classroom has a range of books that excite, inform and advise our children. We  to ensure we always have new and relevant books to support our curriculum through the use of Accelerated Reader which all children access on their individual I-Pads. There are multiple opportunities for our children to read with others and to others as well as to hear texts read aloud. We always have a class novel which is studied as a whole-class with teaching of comprehension based on VIPERS.

If you require any further information regarding the curriculum your child will be following, please contact your child’s class teacher.