Please click here to view our phonics and KS1 reading progression document.

Please click here to view our KS2 reading progression document.

Read Write Inc

At Glenleigh Park we aim to develop children who are confident readers with a passion for books. We want children to be able to apply their reading skills effortlessly to further their own learning as they move through primary school and beyond.

We use the Read, Write Inc. phonics (RWI) program right from a child’s first term in reception. Children remain on this program until they can confidently read at approx. 90 words per minute with texts containing the sounds contained in phases 2-6. It is our aim for children to have successfully completed the phonics program by the end of year 2. If children need to remain on the program in year 3 and beyond we continue to offer phonics lessons at an appropriate level.

We assess all children on the RWI program every 6 weeks and place them into ability groups. The children read books consistent with their phonic knowledge and colour group. We have organised our home books so the colour levels are now coded according to RWI colour bandings. We have charts which show how book bands equate to these colour levels.

The impact of phonics teaching is assessed every 6 weeks so that children can be moved on rapidly. Children develop through this program at their own rate and we have a flight path which helps us to identify, assess and understand age related progress. We run intervention programs for those who need support in keeping up with their peers.

To provide in the moment coaching, we have a RWI lead who monitors and reviews the phonics teaching and learning every day. We find that this is a very effective model in supporting reading teachers to develop their understanding of the program. Our ambition is to provide staff with weekly practise sessions where the RWI lead offers 20 minutes of training on one aspect of the program. A trainer from RWI comes to our school twice a year to provide strategic leadership support to the reading leader as well as running practise sessions for reading teachers.

We firmly believe that the RWI program produces children who are positive readers because we ensure that they read books which accurately match their ability level and their progress is carefully and regularly monitored. We believe that children’s growth as a reader is key to helping them fully access learning into KS2 and beyond. With this in mind our ambitious aim is for all children to have completed the program in year 2.

Reading 

At Glenleigh Park are aim for all children to be enthusiastic, confident and motivated readers. We feel that it is vital that our children are instilled with a passion for reading and a strong desire to read for pleasure. By the time they leave Glenleigh Park, our children should be able to decode and clarify words they are unsure of and will have developed a range of skills, which gives them an independence around reading. At the same time, we teach and encourage children to use skills to be able to discuss and explore texts verbally with others. We feel it is important that children are can think more deeply as a reader and are able to have insightful discussions on a range of text types.

Daily Supported Reading is a programme that ensures children in KS1 develop reading fluency by reading authentic natural language stories every day. Daily Supported Reading is implemented in addition to a school’s synthetic phonics programme. Children read in small groups led by a trained adult. Adults use a lesson guide to structure the session, and to support independent engagement with, and independent enjoyment of, a range of story books. Adults receive ongoing weekly professional development training across the year. They also receive regular coaching support while working with their reading groups each day. The stories that children read in DSR are matched to their independent reading levels and children are promoted to higher level texts weekly.

• Through texts, children learn to respond to, and engage with new ideas and information. (Cultural capital).

• They are taught how to access information with increasing autonomy and to read aloud with increasing fluency.

• They learn to problem solve independently, while keeping a story or message in mind. (Global comprehension)

• They begin to trust, value, and deepen their own opinions and responses while reading with increasing fluency and understanding.

In KS2, we use Destination Reader (DR) to teach our reading skills. This allows us to move children seamlessly on from Daily Supported Reader which they have followed in KS1. DR explicitly teaches a range of skills, which are vital to being a good reader. It is heavily based on pupil interaction and allows children to explore and analyse texts in pairs and groups. Pairings are carefully selected to ensure peers are supportive to each other and progress is monitored by teaching staff.

To complement all of this, we have a well-stocked library that offers a large range of books from various authors, old and new. Children are encouraged to select books themselves, within their reading ranges, to allow them to read books which they enjoy. Children are able to take quizzes on these books to test their understanding and to contribute to their termly targets and yearly word counts. We reward hard-working and enthusiasm towards reading with badges, certificates and signed books.

Reading Recovery

At Glenleigh Park Primary Academy we believe that every child can be a reader. Reading Recovery is an integral part of our approach to ensuring that no child leaves Glenleigh Park unable to read and write and all children enjoy reading for pleasure.

Reading Recovery is an intensive one to one intervention delivered by a specially trained teacher accredited by the Institute of Education, UCL. It is a part of literacy provision at Key Stage One and is aimed at those children who, despite having had high-quality phonics teaching and daily reading instruction in DSR, are falling behind their peers.

It involves a short series of daily 30 minutes one-to-one lessons. Reading Recovery is different for every child, starting from what the child knows and what they need to learn next. The focus of each lesson is to comprehend messages in reading and construct messages in writing, learning how to use letter and word detail fluently without losing focus on meaning and comprehension.

Reading Recovery teacher works closely with the parents, sending familiar books home for extra practice and updating parents on their child’s progress. Parents are invited to watch a live lesson during the programme to pick up some ideas of how to help their child at home and share in their child’s success.

Research shows that Reading Recovery achieves good results that are swift and long lasting. For more information visit  https://www.ucl.ac.uk/reading-recovery-europe/reading-recovery/research