“If pupils cannot read, they will not be able to access the curriculum, and will be disadvantaged for life”
Reading
Through reading, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. Within Warley Road Academy, we highly value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers with a love of reading. We believe reading is the bedrock of success in education. Encouraging and enhancing children’s motivation to read for pleasure is a key driver in our academy through our Love of Reading provision which is included in our ‘Reading Diet’.
Phonics
For the teaching of phonics we use the DfE accredited Essential Letters and Sounds programme. This programme is followed with rigour and fidelity by all teachers and teaching assistants. Discrete whole-class phonics lessons are taught to all children, daily in Reception and Year One. To ensure that learning is embedded, flashcards and reading opportunities continue throughout the day and additional phonics teaching is given to identified children. Phonics remains the main strategy that we use to approach/decode unfamiliar words and spelling across the school.
Here is a link to the ELS website for more information – https://essentiallettersandsounds.org/ssp-programme/
Love for Reading
Reading is a main driver of our academy and children are taught to know the importance of reading. At Warley Road, we promote a love of reading in many ways such as: library visits; reading rockets café; reading records; challenge booklets; author visits and more. At Warley Road, we believe story time is an integral part of the children’s day. Story time is a huge part of developing our children’s love for reading, that is why we have carefully selected the books we read to our classes. We believe that all children should have the opportunity to imagine themselves as the main protagonist in a story. We have made sure this is possible by creating a story time reading journey. We have selected a range of books that link to these criteria: cultural, diverse, world and current issues, current, topical and books that show our children’s demographic and socioeconomic background.
Reading at Home
Reading at home is essential to enable all children to succeed in their learning. Each child is provided with a reading record. Reading is the cornerstone to your child’s learning, and, as such, we encourage children to read at home for 15 minutes every night. We celebrate your child’s reading through ‘Reading Rockets’, which is our reading café that enables all pupils to voice their opinions about books and their reading lessons. Reading for 15 minutes each day will build your child’s reading stamina and wider vocabulary. Please support your child to enable them to become a confident reader.
