Our literacy programme at Alderman Payne Primary School uses "Read Write Inc." Phonics, Literacy & Language, and Spelling. These are highly successful literacy programmes for 4-13 year-olds. We differentiate across the school and teach the children in small groups four days a week. on the fifth day they do extended writing with their class teacher. All staff are trained to use this programme in our school.

The "Read Write Inc." programmes are carefully matched to the new national curriculum, giving your children the best chance of success in the national tests. They show teachers, teaching assistants and parents step-by-step how to teach all children to become fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.

Our school uses:

• Read Write Inc. Phonics for our children in Reception to Year 2 and for our children in Years 3 to 6 who need to catch up 

• Read Write Inc. Literacy and Language for our fluent readers in Years 2 to 6

• Read Write Inc. Spelling for our children in Years 2 to 6 

Teaching Phonics

Teaching phonics in a rigorous way ensures that children have the building blocks for reading. we weave the reading skills of decoding, comprehension, writing and spelling together and teach a little every day. children are tested every 6 to 8 weeks in the early stages of this programme. Any children that have not made progress are given individual tuition to help them to make progress.

We use a system called "Read Write Inc" to teach phonics. If you want to find out more about this system, look at our section "How we teach phonics in detail" and also to explore further ideas about how you can support your child at home, go to http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents/

Please see below some helpful video's and documents in supporting your child at home and using the Read, Write, Inc Scheme.

Red Words

Some words are ‘tricky’ because they contain letters that don’t match the sounds the child has been taught. For example, ‘said’ has ‘ai’ making an ‘e’ sound. We teach these common exception words as Red words. In the early Storybooks, these words are printed in red text.

When reading with your child, remind them not to use Fred Talk to read Red words but instead to stop and think. Tell them the word if needed.

Please find below practice lessons depending on your colour story books and a progression chart detailing the red words in each book. 

Beyond phonics

Once the children have a grasp of letter sounds and how they blend together to form words (phonics), we start to develop fluency. This means when they are reading, children no longer sound out every letter, rather they start to read words at speed, while still maintaining the sense of what they have read. As they progress through the school they read in sentences and also start to use expression for different characters. If you look at the information below, you can see how we teach and assess reading in each of the year groups in school, and you will see how the questions we ask change as the children develop their reading skills. 

Reading for pleasure

We want children to love reading and be lifelong readers. We encourage children to read for pleasure from the very beginning. Even before they can read on their own, they bring home a weekly library book of their choice to share with you. We encourage parents and children to share books together during our weekly family reading sessions. Family reading is for all ages, not just the very youngest, so do come if you can!

We are also keen to promote our local library services. These are a wonderful way to access books for free and to promote a love of reading and books for your child. Please do watch the video below to find out more about our local library services.

What can your library do for you?

If you would like ideas for good quality books that children would enjoy reading for pleasure have a look at the suggestions below.