Mesne Lea Primary School

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Reading and Phonics

Mrs Stott

Phonics Lead

Miss Osborn

Reading Lead

The Importance of Reading

Reading is fundamental to education. Proficiency in reading, writing and spoken language is vital for pupils' success. Through these, they develop communication skills for education and for working with other: in school, in training and at work. 
Children in Reception and Key Stage 1 follow the RWI (Read, Write Inc) Phonics Scheme. It is an approach to teaching phonics in which individual letters or letter sounds are blended to form groups of letters or sounds, and those groups are then blended to form complete words. Our children progress onto RWI Spelling once they can read with accuracy and speed.

Read Write Inc. Phonics

The programme is for:
  • Pupils in Year R to Year 2 who are learning to read and write
  • Any pupils in Years 2, 3 and 4 who need to catch up rapidly
In Read Write Inc. Phonics pupils:
  • Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills • Read common exception words on sight
  • Understand what they read
  • Read aloud with fluency and expression
  • Write confidently, with a strong focus on vocabulary and grammar
  • Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
  • Acquire good handwriting.
In addition, we teach pupils to work effectively with a partner to explain and consolidate what they are learning. This provides the teacher with opportunities to assess learning and to pick up on difficulties, such as pupils’ poor articulation, or problems with blending or alphabetic code knowledge.
We group pupils homogeneously, according to their progress in reading rather than their writing. This is because it is known that pupils’ progress in writing will lag behind progress in reading, especially for those whose motor skills are less well developed.
In Year R we emphasise the alphabetic code. The pupils rapidly learn sounds and the letter or groups of letters they need to represent them. Simple mnemonics help them to grasp this quickly. This is especially useful for pupils at risk of making slower progress. This learning is consolidated daily.
Pupils have frequent practice in reading high frequency words with irregular spellings – common exception words. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the common exception words. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their increasingly fluent decoding. Alongside this, the teachers read a wide range of stories, poetry and non-fiction to pupils; they are soon able to read these texts for themselves.
Embedding the alphabetic code early on means that pupils quickly learn to write simple words and sentences. We encourage them to compose each sentence aloud until they are confident to write independently. We make sure they write every day. Pupils write at the level of their spelling knowledge. The quality of the vocabulary they use in their writing reflects the language they have heard in the books the teacher has read to them; they have also discussed what the words mean.

 

Substantive knowledge

In reading, substantive knowledge is the ability to decode and sight-read words. To begin with, they will need a secure knowledge of phonics. This means that they will be able to hear phonemes, identify digraphs and trigraphs and match the sounds to individual letters and groups of letters (phoneme-grapheme correspondences). They will then apply these skills to blend the sounds of letters together to decode unfamiliar or unknown words. They will also need to sight read a range of tricky words to enable them to become fluent readers.  As they progress in their reading, children will begin to automatically recognise words, reading with automaticity and pace.  This provides children with opportunities to read for pleasure, including reading and reciting poetry, and helps them to develop their vocabulary. Children are then able to apply their knowledge of reading strategies to comprehend a range of texts.

Disciplinary knowledge

In reading, disciplinary knowledge is the process of thinking critically and creatively using the automaticity of substantive knowledge. Once children are fluent readers, who can understand what they have read, they begin to develop their disciplinary knowledge in reading. 

In reading, this involves the ability to interpret different texts, drawing upon knowledge of language and literary conventions. It involves the skills of supporting an opinion, based upon evidence within the text, and comparing and contrasting books from a range of genres, written by a variety of authors. Children will develop the skill of comparing themes, drawing upon extracts from the text to back up arguments and discussions and evaluating the intentions of the author, and expressing personal preferences.

Recommended Reads

Careers in English

 Careers in Drama

 Careers in Drama and Theatre Studies

Guidance & Documents

 

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