At De Havilland, we strive to teach children to read effectively and quickly using the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme (RWI) which includes teaching synthetic phonics, sight vocabulary, decoding and encoding words as well as spelling and accurate letter formation.

We passionately believe that teaching children to read and write independently, as quickly as possible, is one of the core purposes of a primary school. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. Using the RWI phonics programme we teach children to:

• read easily, fluently and with good understanding
• develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information

In practice, children learn the 44 common sounds in the English language and are taught how to blend these sounds to decode (read) words. We start by teaching children to read and blend the first thirty Set 1 sounds. Once they have conquered this skill, they start reading stories and texts that have words made up of the sounds they know. This means that they can embed and apply their phonic knowledge and start to build their reading fluency. Once secure, children learn Set 2 and Set 3 sounds and then read texts with increasingly more complex sounds and graphemes. Throughout this process there is a focus on comprehension, reading with expression and reading for enjoyment.

Phonics is taught daily at De Havilland by staff from across the school. Children are taught in small groups, which reflect their phonic knowledge and reading fluency. We regularly assess children so that they are taught in a RWI group, which matches their phonic knowledge. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ability to read ‘tricky words’; so they experience early reading success and gain confidence that they are readers.

 

Reading in Key Stage Two

In KS2, our Guided Reading lessons ensure fluency is developed by incorporating a range of different reading strategies:

Paired Read | Echo Read | Choral Read | Independent Read | Click Read

Using high quality texts set at a level designed to challenge each child, we use VIPERS to pose mixed comprehension style questions for all children to develop their understanding and ability to discuss and explain their ideas:

Vocabulary

Infer

Predict

Explain

Retrieve

Sequence or Summarise

School and class libraries promote diversity and inclusion by incorporating a range of texts reflecting cultures and countries around the world. 

 

Reading at home

At the beginning of each year, every child is provided with a Reading Record. While our staff aim to contribute to these whenever possible, we primarily entrust the maintenance of these records to parents and carers. This ensures a consistent, daily bridge between home and school, allowing us to celebrate your child’s reading progress together.

Check out the downloads below for our recommended year-group reading lists and some of our staff’s all-time favourite reads!