Castleview
'The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.'
Dr. Seuss
Key Documentation:
Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement
National Curriculum Programmes of Study
Our Vision at Castleview
At Castleview, we aim to provide a stimulating and dynamic environment, where children can interact with books, print, multi-media and spoken language. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that children develop a life-long love of reading.
The teaching of reading begins in Nursery where the children are introduced to letter sounds (not letter names), and over the course of the year, become familiar with all the initial sounds of the letters of the alphabet. These are not taught in alphabetical order, but follow the order prescribed in the Read Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics programme.
Once the children are confident of the initial sounds, they are taught to segment and blend the letters in words in order to decode (read) and in order to encode (write). The children usually begin to do this in Reception, following the structure of the RWI Phonics programme, where they are grouped according to their rate of progress.
In Years 1 & 2, the children continue to follow the programme, again working in groups determined by rate of progress. During their phonics sessions, as well as revising and learning new phonic sounds, the children will apply and develop their phonic and reading skills whilst reading a range of phonic books, both fiction and non-fiction. The phonic sounds taught in school are reinforced through phonically decodable books which are sent home for additional reading practice. The children are encouraged to develop the ability to read at speed, with fluency and expression, and to read ‘like a story-teller’ and discuss many aspects of the book in order to answer comprehension questions verbally. The content of these books becomes gradually more complex.
An Introduction to RWI Phonics
RWI Set 1 Sounds
Reading Schemes
Reading is taught, initially, through the synthetic phonics scheme (RWI Phonics). Castleview has clear expectations of pupils' phonics progress term-by-term, from Reception to Year 2 and the sequence of reading books used both in school, and sent home, shows a cumulative progression in phonics knowledge that is closely matched to the RWI Phonics programme.
Whilst learning to decode, the teaching of phonic sounds taught in school is reinforced through phonically decodable 'Book Bag books', matched to the children's phonics ability, which are sent home for additional practice.
Once the children have completed the phonics programme, we continue to develop reading through a variety of books, and reading genres, from a range of published schemes as follows:
- Oxford Reading Tree
- All Aboard
- Rigby Star
- Sunshine Spirals
- Cambridge
- Oxford Literacy Web
- Jumpstart
These books are book banded by reading level/complexity so that the children are exposed to a variety of fiction genres (including poetry) and non-fiction. This allows the children to see different texts presented in a wide variety of styles. Reading books are changed weekly, with children being encouraged to re-read books so that they become familiar with the texts and so as to encourage discussion with parents to aid comprehension. The re-reading of books enables children to move away from simply decoding the text on the first read. It allows children the opportunity to repeat and explore the language patterns and phrasing used, and to develop greater fluency and expression. With fluency, attention to punctuation and appropriate intonation, comes understanding. This ‘scheme’ and approach continues into KS2. The children may also supplement their given reading books with books from the class bookshelves and the school library so that they can choose books to take home, share and enjoy.
Supporting your child at home
As always, we would encourage you to support the children’s learning at home and revisit concepts that they have studied at school in order to aid consolidation. These websites are great tools for you to utilise in order to do this:
RWI Parent Portal RWI Phonic Sounds through Oxford Owls Phonics Screening CheckReading Tutorials Listening to your child read Ten Top Tips for Reading to Your Child
