At Smithdown Primary, we aim to have all children reading widely, fluently and confidently. Having previously been a ‘Power of Reading School’, we have adapted our reading and writing approaches to incorporate Talk for Writing principles, creating an inspiring reading and writing curriculum.

We use the read to write teaching resources by Literacy Counts as the basis of our English planning from Reception to Year 6.  It incorporates reading, writing, vocabulary and GPS skills through the teaching of high quality texts each half term.

It is our aim to encourage children to learn to love reading and to read regularly outside of school. We have recently opened our own lending library for families and pupils to enjoy.

Children will be taught two key reading skills:

Word reading – the ability to decode words- will be taught through the use of the synthetic phonics scheme ‘ReadWriteInc.’ Children will be bench marked to assess which level of books they should be reading and to ensure that they progress appropriately.

We are very fortunate to have two language support assistants to work with children for whom English is not their first language. These members of staff work with individual pupils and give advice to other staff to ensure these children receive high quality interventions.

Comprehension – Children’s comprehension skills will be taught through high quality discussions with teachers and teaching assistants, individual and group reading times and whole class reading activities. We have moved towards a whole class reading approach and we have found that children have become motivated to read and discuss more challenging texts.

Celebrations such as World Book Day are used to invite authors into school and promote the pleasure and knowledge that can be gained from books.

The documents below give you more information about the texts and genres that your child will be covering.  Please note that this document should be read in conjunction with our curriculum overviews as the order of the units may change throughout the year.  In addition to this, we are looking forward to adding to our Read to Write Units.

Reception Overview for reading and writing              Year 1 Overview for reading and writing 

    Year 2 Overview for reading and writing                 Year 3 Overview for reading and writing

       Year 4 Overview for reading and writing             Year 5 Overview for reading and writing 

Year 6 Overview for reading and writing

Smithdown Primary School Reading Progression map from EYFS to Year 6

Primary National Curriculum for English

Support your child with reading 

 

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) 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.  The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Highfield 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.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.

 

How will RWI be taught?

All children are assessed every 6-8 weeks and placed in groups to target their phonic at the appropriate level. This allows complete participation in lessons.

Please click here for further information about how we teach phonics.

To help at home:

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Please help them to read and give lots of praise!

If you have any other questions about RWI, please see your class teacher.

Phonics Screening Check Year One

What is the Year 1 phonics screening check?

The Year 1 phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.

It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.

 

Useful websites for Parents

Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child  learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.

http://jollylearning.co.uk/ – Games and information for parents

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ – many games to play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ – fun games for the children to play

http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html  – fun games for the children to play

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/kentict_home.cfm  – fun games for the children to play and information for parents

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/  – fun games for the children to play

http://www.starfall.com/  – fun games for the children to play

http://www.firstschoolyears.com/  – fun games for the children to play

BBC Bitesize – many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum

 

This link gives you an overview of how RWI phonics is organised.

RWI phonics

Please click on this link for the Ruth Miskin website where you can find more information regarding Read Write Inc phonics and Literacy & Language including useful videos and guides for parents.

Ruth Miskin website

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Reading and Phonics Chatter

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Supertato Sequencing

29-02-2024

This week we have been working hard with our friends to put our Supertato story pictures into the correct order.

 

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Hansel and Gretel mural display completed.

06-02-2024

How fabulous is this wall? !

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Hansel and Gretel: Dual Narratives

30-11-2023

We have thoroughly enjoyed reading Neil Gaiman’s version of Hansel and Gretel, so much so, it led us to writing our own dual narratives. We are so proud of the writing we have produced.

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Today we have read I Like Trains!

20-11-2023

We have printed trains with blocks and made marks to represent train track, trains and signals.

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Remembrance Day

10-11-2023

For Remembrance Day, we read the poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and after discussing the content, we embellished the poem with images of poppies.

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We are ready to write our own circular story now…

19-10-2023

We retold the model text. We used picture clues to help. We are ready to write our own circular story now #smithdownwriters #smithdownreaders

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We worked in teams to make a better map

19-10-2023

We worked in teams to make a better map than Anna and Crocodile #smithdownreaders #smithdownwriters

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We put Anna and Crocodile in the hot seat

19-10-2023

On Friday we put Anna and Crocodile in the hot seat #smithdownreaders @clpe1

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This morning we found some treasure chests in our room.

19-10-2023

This morning we found some treasure chests in our room. We found some clues about our new story. #smithdownreaders @misshath2 @SmithdownPr

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Little Red riding hood and the Wolf

19-10-2023

We really dressing up and getting in role as Little Red and the Wolf #smithdownreaders

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Reception Phonics

19-10-2023

Working hard in phonics #smithdowneyfs

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Thank you to all of our families who came to our first Reception parents Literacy workshop

19-10-2023

Thank you to all of our families who came to our first Reception parents Literacy workshop. We hope to see you all again next week for our second session! #smithdowneyfs #smithdownreaders

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Phonics in reception today…

19-10-2023

Working hard in phonics #smithdowneyfs

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