Greenacres Primary Academy

Early Reading and Phonics Strategy

Intent

At Greenacres Primary Academy we inspire for all children to develop a love of reading. We want our children to know stories and rhymes by heart because they hear them regularly. We aim for all our children to learn to read phonetically and enjoy and understand age appropriate books.

Implementation

At Greenacres we teach our children to read through RWI. In Nursery our focus is developing the children’s language. Then in the summer term we start teaching our children set 1 sounds. In Reception and Year one, our children are assessed and grouped every half term to ensure they are being taught at their level. Any child working below or not making enough progress receive daily interventions to ensure they catch up quickly. These children are then reassessed every two weeks. As soon as our children can read CVC words they receive two phonics reading books at their level. We only expect children to read books that match their phonics knowledge. Our children also take home a self-chosen library book and a reading challenge book for their parents to share with them.

Throughout the year we hold regular training sessions for parents to give them the best understanding of how to support their child at home with their phonics and reading. We speak to parents who are not reading with their child regularly and discuss additional ways we can support them.

Our staff are passionate about reading to our children daily with love, confidence and enthusiasm.  Each class in Early Year and Key Stage One have a reading area that the children access, these areas are inviting and allow children to share stories with each other. In nursery, Reception and Year 1 we introduce our children to five stories per half term. We read them again and again until the children are familiar with them and enjoy retelling/rereading the story themselves. These are then added to a separate reading area for the children to enjoy independently.

Impact

At Greenacres we aim for all our children to be confident readers. We aim for our children to achieve the Early Learning Goal for Reading in Reception and pass the Phonics Screening Check in Year 1.  Alongside this we aim for all children to be off RWI by the end of autumn term in Year 2 and for children to be reading fluently with a good comprehension of the story. We believe our children enjoy listening to stories & learn new vocabulary through them. Our parents understanding of reading and how to support their children in improving all the time.

South Pennine Academies Approach to Early Reading

South Pennine Academies approach to Early Reading and Phonics

At South Pennine Academies we value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our children to become life-long readers and to have a love of literature in all forms. We recognise that mastery in phonics is fundamental to children being able to access a broad range of fiction and non-fiction texts, across the curriculum. We aim to achieve this by teaching phonics systematically with a relentless drive to address the needs of all learners.

Within our context, ensuring children have the cultural capital and experiences to become engrossed and immersed in reading for both pleasure and progress is vital. Our objective is to develop a curiosity for reading by examining a wide range of texts as a source for discussion. We are committed to ensuring that children leave their respective key stage with the appropriate skills they need to grow as readers as they move through their academic life.

What does Reading and Phonics look like in the classroom?

Our Primary Academies use synthetic phonics and follow either Little Wandle, Letters and Sounds or Read, Write, Inc.; this is a method of learning letter sounds and blending them together to read and write words. We recognise that quality teaching in phonics is the essential first step in improving outcomes for all children.  With this in mind, we focus on evidence based practice engaging our staff in CPD in line with EEF recommendations across the Trust.

How do we measure success in Reading and Phonics?

Our Primary Academies ensure that formative assessment is ongoing and informs next steps for the development of children’s early reading skills.  In addition, termly summative assessments ensure that early reading leaders can monitor, moderate and collaborate on next steps for their individual academies.  Those children not making expected progress are engaged in research based intervention programmes.  All primary academies utilise resources from WELLCOMM and the Nuffield Early Language Interventions.