Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We achieve this together through:

• Read Write Inc, a phonics program to help your child read at school
• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
• Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home

Read Write Inc is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.  It’s designed for children aged 4-7.

However, we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

Read Write Inc. – Find out more

Useful links information for parents:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/learning-to-read-through-phonics-information-for-parents

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/

Reading Intent

At Co-op Academy Princeville, we are committed to teaching our pupils to become skilled readers who develop a comprehensive understanding of words, language and texts as they move through school. They learn to read and then read to learn. Through using a range of strategies, our aim is to ensure that pupils develop a love of reading so that they can read for purpose and for pleasure. We provide pupils with a range of strategies in order to do this.

Reading is given a high priority at Co-op Academy Princeville. Early reading and the teaching of phonics is taught through the use of the Systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) teaching programme Read Write Inc (RWI). 

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

Pupils work in groups according to their progress in reading. All staff have been trained in the RWI scheme and the academy has regular development days with a RWI consultant.

In Reception, 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 of 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. 

Our aim is for pupils to complete the phonics programme as quickly as possible. The sooner they complete it, the sooner they will be able to choose books to read at their own interest and comprehension level. 

RWI and Fresh Start is used as an intervention in Key Stage 2 for pupils who still need support in decoding and reading. 

Once pupils have completed the RWI programme, reading lessons focus upon developing fluency and reading comprehension skills. Reading is taught daily and follows a whole class reading approach to ensure that all content domains are covered in the teaching of reading. All of our pupils read daily.

One-to-one reading with an adult happens regularly at Co-op Academy Princeville. These sessions focus on both fluency and comprehension. 

At Co-op Academy Princeville, we have a reading spine which identifies key texts that pupils will read in each year group. These texts have been chosen for a variety of different reasons including: 

• Archaic language 

• Narratively complex 

• Poetry

• Non-Fiction

• Playscripts

• Personal Development

• Picture books

• Humorous texts

• The text is a ‘classic’ 

• The text links to other curriculum learning