At Shirley Manor, we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe that reading is key for academic success and progress in a number of curriculum areas therefore we provide our pupils with the skills and confidence to deal with printed language from a very early age. We provide children with a structured scheme – Read, Write, Inc., that will lead to children becoming fluent readers so that at the end of their primary education with us, they are able to read a wide variety of texts easily.
As we hold reading for pleasure at the heart of reading, we ensure children develop a real love and thirst for reading a range of genres by providing them with a Read, Write, Inc. story book which they are reading in class, a Read, Write, Inc. story book bag book and a reading for pleasure book. The two Read, Write, Inc. books sent home match the individual child’s phonic ability in order for them to practice at home what they have learnt in school, building on their confidence and fluency as readers.
We, as a school, are determined to provide the best phonics teaching to our children and therefore ensure all staff members teaching Read, Write, Inc. sessions are regularly up-to-date with the correct training. All of our staff members have access to all of the training videos to recap different areas of the sessions they deliver. We also ensure our parents and carers are kept up-to-date too by sharing Read, Write, Inc. resources, information and ‘how-to’ videos in order to support their children at home.
Year 1 Phonics Check
At the end of Year 1 (June), children sit a phonics screening check to test their phonic knowledge and understanding. This is conducted by year 1 class teachers who have received suitable training. The children who score low on the check, even if passed, will still be integrated into the RWI scheme in the following academic year. Any children who do not pass the check with resit it in June in Year 2. Any children who re-take it and do not pass will continue to receive RWI intervention and support until they are competent at reading, typically a case study will have been produced to investigate why they have not passed and additional measures of support will be put into place.