English
At Hareside Primary School, our English curriculum is designed to develop children’s love of reading and writing, and to develop their oracy skills so that they can confidently and fluently communicate their ideas and emotions to others. Pupils will learn to read and write through a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts. We believe that secure foundations in English are vital to a high quality education across the curriculum.
Phonics
At Hareside Primary School we use a synthetic phonics programme to teach reading called 'Read Write Inc’. Read Write Inc Phonics is a method of teaching reading which is centred around learning the sounds of the letters (phonics), and then blending them together to read words. The children also learn to break down words into individual sounds in order to write them.
How it works
In our Nursery the children experience carefully planned activities to develop their early phonic
skills and auditory memory. This will help to prepare them for oral blending and segmenting and
ensure that they are ready to access Read Write Inc when they start Reception.
From the start of Reception, children follow the Read Write Inc scheme which is delivered daily, ensuring that children rapidly learn all letter sounds and move quickly on to segmenting and blending these sounds to support their reading and writing. The children in Reception and Year 1 work in ability groups to learn the 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts. They learn to read words by blending the sounds together. The children move to reading stories featuring words they have learnt to sound out. As children progress and can decode fluently they move onto the Literacy and Language part of the programme which develops children’s comprehension, vocabulary, writing, critical thinking and discussion skills and grammar, in a fun and meaningful way.
This is supported by carefully chosen phonic based home reading books which children read 1-1 with an adult in school as well as at home.
The children who may need extra support developing their phonic skills receive extra support either 1:1 or in a small group.
In addition to the Read Write Inc programme, the children will also be working on early literacy skills, writing skills and storytelling in their classes with their own class teacher.
Assessment
Daily formative assessment opportunities are built into every RWI lesson. The staff leading each group evaluate pupils’ phonic knowledge every session and hence modify the pace and focus of their lessons.
Every six weeks, the children will be assessed again to check they have made progress and will be grouped again.
The children who do not pass their phonics screening in Year 1 will continue RWI phonics in Year 2.
How you can help at home
- Practice the sounds they are learning at school. These are the sounds they take home in their reading folder.
- Listen to your child read their RWI book bag book every day. Make sure that your child brings their RWI book into school every day.
- Read stories with your child every day and encourage them to talk about what is happening in the story, predict what might happen next and to retell the main events in the story.
- Visit the Parents section of the RWI website: https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents-copy-2/ for more tips, techniques and helpful hints.
- There are also useful information for parents on Oxford Owls https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/
Reading at Hareside
For more information about reading at Hareside click here.
Writing at Hareside
For more information about writing at Hareside please click here.