'The school is ambitious for every pupil. This starts with reading. Staff are experts in teaching phonics and early reading. They check regularly to ensure that pupils keep up. Those that are struggling are given the appropriate support through interventions that enable them to catch up. Staff carefully select reading books that match pupils’ stage of development. As pupils become more confident, they gradually move to reading rich quality texts that focus on comprehension and the skills needed to become a fluent reader.'

Ofsted October 2024

Wootey Infant School Reading Intent:

All Children will leave our school being able to read and will develop a love of reading.

Every adult is determined that this will be achieved

We achieve this through using the Read Write Inc. Phonics scheme (RWI), where children learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. 

We have 5 core principles to teaching and learning to read:

1. Children must know the purpose of their lesson - the one thing they should be thinking about.
2. Staff will be passionate about teaching reading - so children will be engaged emotionally.
3. Reading will be taught at an effective pace - so every moment of each lesson is devoted to learning to read.
4. Every child participates throughout the lesson.  Partner work is fundamental to learning.
5. Praise effort and progress - not ability.

The RWI routines and signals are used consistently across the whole school, throughout the whole day.

Reading Implementation:

When children begin to learn to read, they are taught two things:

1) To blend the sounds into words (we call this Fred Talk and it is a vital stage necessary for learning to read) 

2) To recognise the sounds in the English alphabetic code - the 150+ letters that represent 44 speech sounds.  

These sounds are split into 3 Sets: Set 1; Set 2; Set 3.

A speed sound booklet will be sent home when in Year R.  This booklet is to be kept and referred to throughout Years 1 and 2 also.

Links to RWI Phonics films will be sent home regularly, with a dual purpose:

1) to recap learning that has been covered in class, to ensure gaps are addressed and children are able to 'keep up' with the expected sounds/words.

2) to share with parents what a model lesson looks like.

Simple mnemonics help all children to grasp the letter-sound correspondences quickly, especially those who are at risk of making slower progress or those who are new to learning English.  This knowledge is taught and consolidated every day.

High frequency words that are not phonically regular are taught as 'tricky' words (we call them Red Words) and are practised frequently.

Reading books (to read in home and in school) are closely matched to children's knowledge of sounds and 'tricky' words, so that early on, they experience plenty of success.

Repeated reading of the same book support their increasingly fluent decoding.

Children read their book a minimum of three times.

1st read: accuracy - children focus on accurate word reading ('Fred Talk')

2nd read: on developing fluency

3rd read: reading like a storyteller, so they are able to develop comprehension of what they are reading.

Fluency and comprehension increase with each repeated reading.

Grouping:

Children are assessed and grouped according to their phonic knowledge, each half term. They will bring home a reading book each week, linked to the colour group they are in and what has previously been taught in class. A bookmark will also be brought home each half term, showing the 'tricky' words to learn for their particular colour.  Ongoing assessment means that groups are constantly adjusted to ensure the best progress for each child.

Keeping up

To ensure all children keep up with the number of sounds and words being able to be read, the following interventions are in place:

1) Pinny Time - going through a set of sounds/words speedily

2) Speed Minutes - how many sounds/words can be read in a minute? Can you beat your score?

3) Partner Practice - pairing children up with other children to practise speed sounds and words

4) Fast Track Tutoring - 1:1 or small group teaching

5) Priority Reading - with Reading Volunteers 2-3 times a week.

6) Mini Phonics - an additional speed sound lesson by watching the virtual classroom films.

Beyond RWI

Once the children have completed the RWI Phonics programme, they will be taught the RWI Comprehension programme. RWI Comprehension follows on from RWI Phonics and is a series of weekly modules for children in Year 2.  

It develops children's reading fluency, comprehension of and response to fiction and non-fiction texts and aims to improve children's writing by developing their vocabulary, grammar and spelling knowledge.

Silent Signals (to prevent cognitive overload):

Children are praised for routines they do quickly and quietly.

Stop signal: helps us stop in a calm manner, ready for what's next.

Turn to your partner signal (TTYP): partner work is used consistently in all lessons.  

My turn, your turn (MTYT) signal: this silent signal is used when children are required to repeat something after the teacher.

1,2,3 signal: one finger held up (children stand); two fingers (children walk to the desired area); three fingers (children sit down).

Silent handwriting signal: this sign indicates that children sit with their feet flat on the floor; bottom at the back of the chair; body one fist from the table; shoulders down and relaxed; one hand holding their page; back leaning forward slightly; other hand holding a pencil, ready in a tripod grip.

Library Books

Every child will visit the school library each week to develop their love of reading.  Their choice of book is for them to share at home and have it read to them. Classes have an allocated library day, but if books are forgotten on that day, then a visit later in the week can be arranged. We are able to give reminders of which books are outstanding.  If books are damaged or lost, we ask for a voluntary donation to cover the cost of the book (£1 for Speed Sound booklets; £5 for RWI reading books; and the cost of individual library books).

We strongly encourage all children to become a member of the local town library, and try to incorporate visits to Alton Library each year. 

World Book Day

Is celebrated each year by dressing up (optional) and sharing of our favourite books with each other and our Wootey Junior School Buddies.

National Poetry Day

Children are exposed to a variety of poems and learn one to perform to others.

Book Fairs

In the Autumn term a Scholastic Book fair is held in the Junior School Hall and in the Summer term it is held in the Infant School Hall.  In the Spring term we endeavour to visit Alton Library, local book shops and to hold a second hand book sale.

Get Caught Reading

Each week, the children are encouraged to choose to read in their 'spare' time.  If they are 'caught' reading, without being told to, they get to wear 'reading wings' and their name goes into the pot in Celebration Assembly on Friday.  A name is pulled out of the pot each week, and the winner gets to choose a book from the selection on display to take home and keep.

In Year R (Early Years Foundation Stage), we have an aspiration linked to Reading:

I am a storyteller 

Further Foundation Stage Curriculum guidance:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

Reading in Years 1 and 2 (Key Stage 1)

The National Curriculum for pupils in Key Stage 1:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study 

Talk Through Stories

What is it?

Talk Through Stories is a vital addition to our English curriculum, designed to extend and deepen children’s vocabulary so that they can understand the books they will soon be able to read for themselves. 

How talk through stories works

Each book is shared in story time, daily in class, for two weeks.  Week one is Story week and week two is Vocabulary week.

In Story week, we help children to get to know the story well: the plot, the characters, and their actions and motives.
In Vocabulary week, we focus on eight words from the story. These are words that children are unlikely to hear in everyday conversation but are likely to come across in stories. For example, in 'I’m in charge' by Jeanne Willis, we chose bellowed, startled, barged, sneaked, grinned, dreadful, stomped, refused.
Children’s understanding of each word is then developed in the context of their everyday lives.

The stories

We chose stories that we believe are worth reading and re-reading – stories that children will love. We include old favourites such as Dogger by Shirley Hughes, Burglar Bill by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear? by Martin Waddell and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. We also include more recent literature, such as Hugless Douglas by David Melling, Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival, I’m in Charge by Jeanne Willis, Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen, Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke.

We also searched hard for stories where children from minority ethnic backgrounds were the main protagonists in everyday situations, such as celebrating a birthday, going shopping, being ill, having a  tantrum, having their hair cut or worrying about the arrival of a new sibling. 

'Schoolreaders' recruits, places and supports volunteers in local primary schools to give
children one-to-one reading support on a weekly basis, boosting their literacy skills,
confidence, and reading fluency. We’re proud to be a partner school, able to provide our
pupils with this valuable extra reading time each week!

SPEAKING AND LISTENING

We believe that developing children’s speaking and listening skills is essential in enabling them to become effective communicators, both in spoken and written forms.

We are firm believers that, in their earliest years, children learn best through play. With this in mind, we ensure that children are taught the skills that they need in speaking and listening in a wide range of, often, playful ways. These include drama and roleplay opportunities, where children are encouraged to adopt familiar or imaginary roles and personas in their roleplay, small world play, with puppets etc. These may be based on real-life experiences – the home, the vets, or the doctors, for example – or on characters, settings and events from a variety of nursery rhymes, traditional tales and stories. Alongside these approaches, children are supported to develop and use a wide range of vocabulary linked to their interests and learning through adults interacting and engaging with them in their play and modelling and extending their language appropriately.

Learning journeys always contain sessions with a speaking and listening focus. Children use these opportunities to consider their own or others’ feelings and responses to situations, developing vocabulary for later writing.

We support children in their development through the use of our skilled staff and visitors, often using outside drama groups or actors to lead workshops and immersion days where children are provided with ‘first-hand’ experiences which develop their language, understanding and responses to the topics that they are studying. For example, children in KS1 experience the rigours of nursing during the Crimean War.

Wootey Infant School Writing Intent:

All Children will leave our school being able to write

and every adult is determined that this will be achieved

We achieve this through using the Read Write Inc. Phonics scheme (RWI), where children learn to write accurately and fluently. 

We have 5 core principles to teaching and learning to write:

1. Children must know the purpose of their lesson - the one thing they should be thinking about.
2. Staff will be passionate about teaching reading - so children will be engaged emotionally.
3. Writing will be taught at an effective pace - so every moment of each lesson is devoted to learning to read.
4. Every child participates throughout the lesson.  Partner work is fundamental to learning.
5. Praise effort and progress - not ability.

The RWI routines and signals are used consistently across the whole school, throughout the whole day.

As with Reading, the alphabetic code is embedded first, so that the children can write simple words early on and build on their success.  The children write every day, rehearsing out loud what they want to write, and composing sentence by sentence, until they are confident enough to write independently.

They write at the level of their spelling knowledge: that is, they use their knowledge of the alphabetic code and the 'tricky' words they have learnt.

They practise handwriting every day: sitting at a table comfortably, learning correct formation and when ready, joining letters speedily and legibly.

Writing Implementation:

Transcription

Children learn to:

• develop a confident handwriting style
• spell common words with common graphemes and suffixes
• spell common words with unusual grapheme ('tricky' words)
• write sentences with correct letter formation, spelling and punctuation.

Composition

Children learn to:

• build and rehearse their own sentences based on ideas from the story
• apply new grammar concepts linked to the story
• use new vocabulary in their writing
• edit their writing to correct their grammar and punctuation

When learning Set 1 sounds, children are taught handwriting phrases to help them remember correct formation.

Handwriting is taught in the RWI lesson, as well as a daily class based handwriting lesson.  Expectations for handwriting are outlined in the Wootey Infant Handwriting overview.

Whilst being taught to read and spell 'tricky' words which appear in their reading books, the children in Years 1 and 2 also have half termly spelling tests of the DfE listed 'common exception words' (tricky words).

We highlight the first 10 errors and children are encouraged to practise spelling these words in school and at home.

OUTCOMES

We are very proud of the outcomes that the children in every year group achieve and are regularly wowed by the maturity and complexity of thinking that they demonstrate. We are confident that this quality is a result of the clear links made in every year group between speaking and listening, phonics, spelling, reading and writing combined with the motivation and engagement that the children feel when they are immersed in learning journeys with rich links across subjects. This truly is a curriculum for the children of Wootey Infants which sets them up very well for their journey into KS2.