Reading & Phonics Schemes

From joining Farnworth in Reception and throughout Key Stage 1 children take part in high-quality phonics sessions every day. Phonics is about children knowing how letters link to sounds, for example c as in ‘cat’, ll as in ‘fell’, ee as in ‘sheep’. Children use their phonic knowledge when they are reading and writing. This approach has been shown to provide a quick and efficient way for most young children to learn to read words on the page fluently and accurately. We want children to develop this skill so that it becomes automatic. This also greatly helps them with their spelling.

We use the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to teach phonics in Reception, Year 1 and for the first term of Year 2. This programme is also used to support children throughout Year 2 and into Key Stage 2 if required. Each session focuses on a new speed sound where the children learn to identify it, write it, blend to read it in words and segment to write it in words. RWI phonics is divided into 3 sets, with each building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning.

We encourage the children to read daily at home with their families, to enable them to practise their word reading skills (segmenting and blending) whilst also developing comprehension skills through discussion.

As children move into KS2, phonics continues for those who need it. Children also begin work on Reading Plus, an online resource which continually assesses them in order to provide texts suited to them and to challenge them at their level. Number of words read and ‘levelling up’ motivate and encourage children to continually strive for their targets and we have had great success with this resource over the last two years. Children work on fluency and on comprehension skills and they enjoy working in this way. Reading Plus also provides teachers with up to date assessment to enable them to target areas needing development and provides guidance and resources to support them in doing this effectively. Thanks to our investment in new laptops last year, every child in KS2 is able to complete 3 assignments a week in school, with further assignments set as homework. Alongside this, we do written comprehension work to give children the opportunity to practise and apply their skills. We also encourage reading for enjoyment, and have invested heavily in our class libraries to provide high quality, popular books for the children to enjoy. When deciding on books, children shared their favourite authors and genres and we purchased titles based on this.