Reading at Shaw Primary Academy

At Shaw Primary Academy, we see reading as an integral part of our school curriculum that impacts on all learning. We value the importance of being a confident reader and work hard to develop children’s reading skills. We want children to enjoy reading a wide range of different books and be able to talk about books and authors.

In our school, children participate in reading activities every day. These vary from taught sessions to opportunities for reading for pleasure and information. During Guided Reading and Shared Reading, children are taught and given opportunities to apply reading skills which include: phonics, sight vocabulary, contextual cues, comprehension, inference and deduction. Teachers use a range of carefully selected resources when teaching children to read. Every opportunity is seized throughout the day to enable pupils to use their reading skills when accessing other areas of the curriculum. On a daily basis, teachers read aloud to the children and engage them, through active discussions, in order to promote an enjoyment of reading and to expose them to a range of vocabulary that may be beyond their current reading ability.   In addition to this, we have a wide range of non-fiction texts that are used during lessons to embed and enhance learning wherever possible. 

Phonics

Phonics is taught discretely from the Foundation Stage through to the end of Key Stage 1 using the Read Write Inc [RWI] scheme. Year 1 pupils take part in the phonics screening in the summer term. Results of the screening are shared with parents at the end of the academic year. Older pupils who require more phonics skills are catered for through phonics interventions.

All children are encouraged to read at home every evening either independently or with a sibling or an adult. They take home a reading book from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme which can be changed as often as required. Children who are still working through the RWI scheme will also take home a RWI book which closely matches their current phonics ability - this book is changed weekly so that children have the opportunity to practise their reading skills and become fluent and accurate readers. This shared learning will help children to practice their reading skills and develop a lifelong love of reading.

RWI books are sent home weekly and match your child's current phonics ability. They have the opportunity to practise sounds and red words (or tricky words) at an appropriate level. We ask that they read this book several times over the week to practise the skill of reading and becoming more fluent and accurate with their reading.

You can support your child with their reading and progress by reading their Oxford Reading Tree and RWI books daily at home.  Encouraging them to read at home will foster their love of reading for pleasure and in turn will support them in making progress in many areas of their learning here in school.  Reading is an essential skill to learn and promote and reading as much as you can at home is important.  Thank you for your support with this.

Don't forget, every book read at home also counts towards a leaf on our reading tree!

Oxford Reading Tree Reading Scheme

Rooted in reading for pleasure and with systematic phonics at its heart, Oxford Reading Tree's well-loved characters, breadth (over 800 books!) and varied writing styles give children everything they need to become confident readers and it is the reading scheme we use here at Shaw.

Every child here at Shaw is given a book from this reading scheme that they can take home and share with you.  Once they have read the book they can change it in school for another, working through the reading scheme and moving on to the next book band when ready.  The books are available from Reception to year 6 and they are banded with the children moving to the next band when secure with the previous one. 

The very first books contain only pictures for the children to tell their own stories, moving on to a few words on a page and continuing until they become well established readers and reach the books which are longer. After completing the Oxford Reading Tree scheme, children will be 'free readers' and will be reading longer, chapter books.

There are a wide range of books in the Oxford Reading Tree scheme catering for all ages and interests including series such as Floppy's phonics, Biff, Chip and Kipper, Traditional Tales, Songbird Phonics, inFact, Story Sparks and Graphic Novels.  We have a broad range of these in school with both fiction and non-fiction texts available.