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Reading
We value Reading at Red Oak extremely highly, and we take pride in the teaching of reading, and in developing reading for pleasure within our school community. Our children see the adults here as teachers of reading, and as teachers that read for pleasure.
The teaching of reading at Red Oak starts in our Nursery, where children are taught the sounds needed to read simple words. We use RWI Phonics to teach reading to children from Nursery to Year 2. Each child from Reception to Year 2 is assessed every six weeks and grouped according to their phonic ability. Groups for teaching phonics are kept as small as possible, and each child has a home reading book that is matched to their phonic ability. Once a child has completed the RWI programme they are taught in their year group class for English.
Children in Year 3 and 4 who have not completed the RWI Phonic programme are taught reading in small RWI phonic groups, according to their ability, and they are also assessed every six weeks.
Children in Year 5 and 6 who still need support with learning to read are taught in small RWI Fresh Start groups.
Children who are taught in class have access to high quality texts that cover an ambitious range and breadth of classic literature, poetry, engaging picture books, and texts that challenge the children.
All classes have very well stocked reading areas, and these are regularly checked, and updated if necessary. We have two libraries in our school. One contains the Oxford University Press reading scheme that we use; RWI Book Bag Books, Fireflies, Project X, Reflect, Graphic Novels, Chucklers, Greatest Stories, Hero Academy, Treetops, Snapdragons, In Fact, Story Sparks, All Stars and Myths and Legends. Our other library contains high quality wider reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as subject specific reading material.
Children are encouraged to read daily at home with their parents and we have reward systems in place to acknowledge their efforts, we award dojo points, golden tickets, reading award badges, and book tokens. Children that do not read regularly at home are listened to at school, reading records reflect how often children are listened to in school, and we aim for every child to be heard every day.
Teachers read to their class every day, from a book they have chosen to read to the children, this is in addition to the text they are reading in English lessons. These texts are chosen so that children broaden their knowledge of other cultures, people and places, and these texts give the children the opportunity to explore different beliefs, values and attitudes, as well as build up a reservoir of linguistic experiences upon which to draw. As the children progress through the school there is a shift from learning to read, to reading to learn, and teachers encourage children to read across all subjects in search of information, instructions or for research purposes. We encourage the children to use the internet for research and teach them how to skim and scan web pages for information.
Teachers spend time talking to their class about their own reading experiences, and sharing with the children their enjoyment of reading. This helps develop a reading for pleasure culture across the school as children see their teachers as readers as well as teachers of reading. Staff meetings have regular updates on reading, and teachers and support staff receive reading CPD fortnightly in meetings, and staff are asked to feedback on the impact of certain reading strategies used in class following CPD.
We hold regular Share sessions which gives parents an opportunity to visit their child in class and share stories with them, we also hold ‘Seeing is Believing’ walks for parents so that they can visit and see how their children are taught to read. Every September we hold a meeting for the parents of Reception children and we share with them how we teach the children to read, and each parent receives a RWI home reading and writing kit so that their children can practise at home. We have regular author visits, story telling visits and theatre companies to school so that the children can meet real authors, and so that the stories the children have already heard or read come to life.
At Red Oak we know that if you read you succeed!
Reading at Home
Reading at home is one of the easiest but most important ways in which you can help your child. As you share books you are helping improve your child's reading skills and also showing them how important and enjoyable reading is. We are very fortunate at Red Oak Primary to have an extensive and diverse library where the children can access a whole range of reading books and literature. We believe it is vitally important that our pupils continue to enjoy their reading out of school.
Here are some useful websites and online resources to help you choose books for children and better understand the importance of reading with your child:
If you would like any more information on helping your child read at home please drop in to school and collect one of our 'Parent Guide to Reading' leaflets.
Read Write Inc. Phonics and Spelling
Please click on the link below for the Oxford Owl website. This contains lots of resources for teaching phonics at home.
On the top right hand corner of the website is a link that says 'My class login' - please click on this and enter the following details for your child's year group:
Class name: red oak year 2 Password: 2Redoak
Class name: red oak year 3 Password: 3Redoak
Class name: red oak year 4 Password: 4Redoak
Class name: red oak year 5 Password: 5Redoak
Class name: red oak year 6 Password: 6Redoak
RWI Daily phonics videos
Read Write Inc
Here at Red Oak Primary School our children use a carefully designed programme called Read Write Inc. to learn Literacy.
Teaching our children to read and write accurately, fluently and confidently is the most important thing we will do.
Ofsted’s greatest focus, as well as ours here at school, is upon the teaching of reading: Read Write Inc. is the Phonics and Literacy programme that we use across the school to maximise reading results.
Read Write Inc. programmes combine into a complete literacy programme which we run from the moment new pupils arrive in our Nursery. These programmes are designed to stimulate and challenge children’s thinking and create enthusiastic, life-long readers and writers in them all.
At Red Oak we recognise that children who read a lot are successful at school. Reading enriches their vocabulary, their grammar, their writing and their spelling.
Importantly, if they read and write fluently, they can draw ideas together – a key skill for effective learning at any age. Teaching children to read – and keeping them reading – are the two things that will make the biggest difference to their future.
The five key principles of the Read Write Inc. programme are:
Participation, Praise, Pace, Purpose and Passion.
To visit the Read Write Inc. website please click below.
Read Write Inc. is an Oxford University Press teaching programme, created by Ruth Miskin, one of the UK’s leading authorities on teaching children to read. Over the last ten years, all of Ruth’s time has been devoted to developing the Read Write Inc. programme, underpinned by her unwavering belief that every child can, and must, learn to read.
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Ruth Miskin Accreditation
We are a “Get Reading. Keep Reading. Change Everything.” school.
We use the highly successful Read Write Inc. Phonics programme to teach our children to read, write and spell. Our children do well in the phonics screening check and by Year 2, the majority are fluent readers with the best chance of success in the KS1 tests.
Ruth Miskin Training recognise us for teaching the programme with fidelity and passion – we know what it takes to make reading and writing pleasurable and rewarding for our children.
This badge recognises that we:
- Raise standards in reading and writing for our children
- Are all expertly trained by Ruth Miskin Training
- Gain the latest programme updates through regular visits from our Ruth Miskin trainer
- Support our most vulnerable readers with extra one-to-one teaching every day.
Click below to visit the parent pages on the Ruth Miskin Training website:
https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/
Click below to sign up to the Ruth Miskin Training newsletter: