Reading
At The Limes primary academy, we want children to love to read and to enjoy reading for pleasure.
Teaching children to read and write accurately, fluently, and confidently is key.
In the words of Dr Seuss- "the more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places, you'll go"
Therefore, we ensure reading is central to our curriculum and we put every effort into making sure that children develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.
We encourage children to engage with texts for pleasure through:
- Weekly visits to our school library space
- Access to the school library during social times
- Daily reading for pleasure time
- Class novel time
- Half termly story cafes
- Use of accelerated reader
Our reading for pleasure library is the perfect place to sit down and enjoy a good book! Children can share books with their friends in the tree house or sit quietly on a toadstool whilst their imaginations run wild.
As a school we continuously invest in new books and ensure that all books pupils explore; when reading for pleasure or to further develop their reading attainment and fluency, are of a high quality.
We use Accelerated Reader across the school to promote reading.
Accelerated Reader involves:
- Half termly reading assessments called ‘Star Reading Tests’ Children access these on an iPad/computer. Children answer questions to assess their reading and comprehension skills.
- The results from the above tests produce a suggested level for each child.
- Children visit our school’s Accelerated Reader library space where they have access to a range of high-quality texts that are suitably challenging to improve their reading and comprehension skills.
- When children have finished their book they take an ‘Accelerated Reading Quiz’ that asks them questions related to their text.
- The computer then gives children a percentage score depending on how many questions they got right. Children should aim for 80%.
- Children continue to read other books within their given level and gradually progress onto harder books.
We ask that you read with your child/ren read at least 3 times a week. When reading with your child, use the suggested questions below to ask them about what they have read as this will help them access the quiz in school.
- Who are the main characters?
- What is the story setting?
- What are the 3 main events in the story?
- Did you enjoy the book? Why? Why not?
- Who was your favourite character? Why?
- Which part did you like the best? Why?
Don’t forget to log into your child’s Boom Reader account where you will be able to view your child’s recent reading in school and log any reading you have completed at home.
At The Limes Primary Academy, we teach phonics through Read, Write Inc.
Read, Write Inc is a phonics programme that we run from the moment new pupils arrive in our Nursery. The programme is designed to stimulate and challenge children’s thinking and create enthusiastic, life-long readers. It teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. Read, Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only they letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words).
At the Limes we recognise that children who read a lot are successful at school. Reading enriches their vocabulary, their grammar, their writing and their spelling.
The more quickly they learn to read, the more they want to read and the more they understand; the less they struggle with spelling, the more capacity they have for writing what they want to say.
Importantly, if they read and write fluently, they can draw their ideas together – a key skill for effective learning at any age. Teaching children to read, and keeping them reading, are the two things that will make the biggest difference to their future.
The five key principles of the Read, Write Inc programme are:
- Participation
- Praise
- Pace
- Purpose
- Passion
Read, Write Inc. is an Oxford University Press teaching programme, created by Ruth Miskin, one of the UK’s leading authorities on teaching children to read. Over the last ten years, all of Ruth’s time has been devoted to developing the Read, Write Inc programme, underpinned by her unwavering belief that every child can, and must, learn to read.
We are proud to be a Read, Write Inc. school.
To visit the Read Write Inc. website please click the link below.
See links to free resources to support your child’s reading below:
Set 1 resources https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/#set1ssps
Set 2 resources https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/#set2ssps
Set 3 resources https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/#set3ssps
Writing
At the Limes Primary Academy, it is important to us that all children in the school enjoy writing and are helped to achieve their best writing practice by consistently effective teaching. As a school we have developed an approach to writing and a school teaching sequence that ensures coverage of a range of writing genres that all pupils can access and ensures all pupils can be successful.
Ofsted’s focus within writing is the opportunity of extended writing and the level of quantity and quality children produce.
Extended writing is an important element within the teaching of writing at The limes.
Our writing sequence includes the following key elements:
- Analyse it
- Reconstruct it
- Collect it
- Plan it
- Write it
- SPAG
- Improve it
- Publish it
We believe a stimulating learning environment with clear modelling and expectations sets children up to become fantastic, independent writers! We take pride in our learning environments both in the classroom and corridors.
Writing working walls are located in every classroom, along with class language lines to further develop and embed children’s vocabulary
Every child’s writing is showcased within our school corridors which promotes pride and showcases the progress pupils have made.
Our children take pride in their books and this reflects in their writing books, showing the efforts and progress they have made.
Phonics
At The Limes Primary Academy, we teach phonics through Read, Write Inc.
Read, Write Inc is a phonics programme that we run from the moment new pupils arrive in our Nursery. The programme is designed to stimulate and challenge children’s thinking and create enthusiastic, life-long readers. It teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. Read, Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only they letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words).
At the Limes we recognise that children who read a lot are successful at school. Reading enriches their vocabulary, their grammar, their writing and their spelling.
The more quickly they learn to read, the more they want to read and the more they understand; the less they struggle with spelling, the more capacity they have for writing what they want to say.
Importantly, if they read and write fluently, they can draw their ideas together – a key skill for effective learning at any age. Teaching children to read, and keeping them reading, are the two things that will make the biggest difference to their future.
The five key principles of the Read, Write Inc programme are:
- Participation
- Praise
- Pace
- Purpose
- Passion
Read, Write Inc. is an Oxford University Press teaching programme, created by Ruth Miskin, one of the UK’s leading authorities on teaching children to read. Over the last ten years, all of Ruth’s time has been devoted to developing the Read, Write Inc programme, underpinned by her unwavering belief that every child can, and must, learn to read.
We are proud to be a Read, Write Inc. school.
To visit the Read Write Inc. website please click the link
Read Write Inc is taught daily for all Early Years and Key Stage 1 children to give them the best start in their edication and to promote a love for reading.
Any children in Key Stage 2 who still rely on phonics as a strategy for reading and accessing texts also streamed within our phonics groups.
A typical RWI session will include:
- Flash card session with rhymes
- Fred talk uding Fred fingers
- Green words with sound buttons
- Red words
- Read the story
- Build a sentence.
For more information:
Visit the parent pages on Ruth Miskin training website:
https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/
Sign up to the Ruth Miskin training newsletters
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/hear-from-us/
You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter for great support with your child’s learning.
See links to free resources to support your child’s reading below:
Set 1 resources https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/#set1ssps
Set 2 resources https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/#set2ssps
Set 3 resources https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/#set3ssps