English - Reading and Writing

Phonics and Reading in Early Years and Key Stage One

At The Hawthorns Primary School, we have high aspirations for all our children and are committed to improving standards in Phonics, Reading and Writing.

We use the highly successful Read Write Inc phonics scheme within our school as we are dedicated to ensuring that every child is able to read by the end of Key Stage 1.

Our Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children have daily Read Write Inc. sessions and we support our most vulnerable readers with extra one–to–one teaching every day.

We use the Read Write Inc Phonics programme as soon as the children start in Reception and this will continue through Year 1 and into Year 2. The teaching of this programme is a method of learning centred around letter sounds and phonics, blending them together to read and write words and using these learnt sounds in their reading and writing.

Using Read Write Inc phonics, the children learn to read effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read. It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put their energy into composing what they write.

Reading in Key Stage Two

To continue our children’s reading learning journey, we use a whole class teaching approach to reading. Our Key Stage 2 children have a daily reading session where high quality and challenging texts are read and dissected using high-level questioning and discussion. Teachers explicitly model specific reading skills to enable children to apply these with increasing independence.

Children with gaps in their phonic knowledge and reading fluency will also be supported through high quality Read Write Inc. teaching and intervention.