Phonics
At Millbrook Primary School, every child becomes "a reader for life". We have designed a Reading Curriculum that ensures that pupils are instilled with a love of reading, gain the relevant reading skills, and acquire vocabulary and knowledge that enables access, equity, and achievement across the curriculum as well as in our rapidly changing society.
We recognise that reading is the key which unlocks a child's ability to be autodidactic and learn truly independently, beyond our classroom.
As a school that value evidence-informed practice, we selected a systematic, synthetic phonics programme that has proven to be highly effective for our school demographic - Read, Write Inc.
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a systematic, synthetic phonics programme that is validated by the Department for Education to ensure that children learn to decode to a standard that is required for them to become fluent, confident readers. Read, Write Inc. helps all children to read by teaching the sounds letters make in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. The programme introduces reading books using only the letters that children have learnt at each level (and a small number of 'tricky words') to ensure that children feel confident and successful when reading. By helping children to read fluently, and at speed, they can then focus on developing other relevant reading skills such as comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.
We teach Read, Write Inc. (RWI) in Early Years and Key Stage One, and our staff are regularly trained using up-to-date research and practice to inform and continuously update our RWI programme delivery.
We assess and group children in Reception and Year 1 according to their reading level each half term. This ensures that any gaps are addressed quickly and that teaching sequences, groupings and the need for tutoring are adaptive and effective to enable accelerated progress for all.
To practise the reading skills taught in daily Read, Write Inc. lessons, 'Book Bag Books' are sent home which are specifically pitched to both consolidate learning and provide challenge. Weekly words are also sent home that are aligned to develop sight recognition and fluency.
To support your child with Read, Write Inc. at home, click on the link below to access our 'Learning Zone'.