At the very heart of learning at West Rainton Primary School, is a well-developed understanding that learning to read is essential for all pupils, in their development as young people and in preparation for the challenges of the school national curriculum, and life itself. Learning to read fluently doesn’t happen by chance; it simply needs to be taught in an effective and progressive manner. Being an avid reader is a skill that everyone deserves to possess, and is the gateway to a successful future.
As part of our curriculum provision, we use a range of resources including the Oxford Owl website, which has great ideas for parents to help children’s reading at home.
The Oxford University Press website has information about our phonics programme, which is Read, Write Inc. Here you will find links to a presentation demonstrating how to pronounce the speed sounds your children are learning at school and lots of other information on the phonics scheme for parents. The implementation of this method of teaching phonics has made a significant difference in our school, showing that the children are well-prepared for the other aspects of the curriculum.
In Reception and Year 1 we use Read Write Inc to learn our letters and sounds. We have Fred Frog who helps us to blend and segment our green words. We also have red words which you can’t sound out. Remember… you can’t Fred a red. Read Write Inc helps us to prepare for our phonics test in the spring term when we need to read both real and nonsense words. For more information on speed sounds or red and green words please see class 2’s web page, and please ask members of staff in the infants if you need further support or information.
To support their phonics and reading in school, children receive carefully matched reading resources and texts to practise their new and exciting skills with you at home too. Whilst developing their phonic knowledge, the children will be reading the Read Write Inc. book bag books which are exactly aligned with the level of text they are working on in school. Once their phonic knowledge is more secure, the children will begin to decode more challenging words using the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. Whilst it is very important that the children practise with these carefully selected texts, it is also equally valuable that children have regular opportunities to share their favourite stories or non-fiction books with your support too. Curling up after bath time, and the associated feelings of comfort and security that sharing a book with an adult brings, fosters a life-long love for reading and literature.
Also, we have a school account for the website ‘busy things’ to help your child at home; this website has many fantastic games which support the learning of phonics through fun games, and it also supports across other aspects of the school curriculum.
Please contact school if you have forgotten the login details for Busythings.
For ideas on how to help your child with reading, please see the following links:
Set 1 speed sounds and RWI books red, green and purple story books
Set 2 and 3 speed sounds and RWI books pink, orange, yellow, blue and grey story books
If you would like more information about reading in school, please click on the links below for our key policies: