Reading

At Aiskew, Leeming Bar CE Primary School we use Read, Write, Inc as our approach to teaching systematic synthetic phonics. 

Reading in EYFS focuses around the high quality teaching of phonics.  We follow the Read, Write, Inc (RWI) programme with fidelity, in a highly structured format, on a daily basis.  As well as learning to decode, EYFS children's understanding and vocabulary are extended through the Talk through Stories scheme of work which is also part of RWI. 

Phonic lessons continue into Y1 following the RWI scheme of work.  Once children have learnt all the required sounds in this year group, children start to develop their comprehension skills, in line with Y2 to Y6 children. The discrete teaching of reading skills is taught 4 times per week for approximately 30 mins each session. Y2 – Y6 (and Y1 when ready) follow the Prim-Ed comprehension skills scheme. This supports the development of children’s learning of the following skills:

• Understanding words
• Finding information
• Identifying the main idea
• Sequencing
• Finding similarities and differences
• Predicting
• Concluding
• Summarising
• Inferring
• Cause and effect
• Fact or opinion
• Point of view and purpose

In addition to these skills, children are encouraged to clarify all unknown vocabulary. A clarifying lesson takes place during our first read of the text. This is particularly important to our school vision of inclusivity because we recognise the high proportion of children with SEND and those that are EAL therefore time spent learning vocabulary is essential to our pupils to support them to make progress. There are opportunities for modelling the reading skills, practising it with a learning partner and applying it independently. Each skill has a focus for a 2 week block. Because all skills need to be practised regularly, at the end of each 2 week block, a text based on a current, cross-curricular topic will be given for 2 sessions where children will be expected to read and answer a range of questions. For this we use a range of exciting and engaging text from Comprehension Plus (Literacy Shed). These complement learning in foundation subjects and Science.