Freezywater St George's CofE Primary School

At Freezywater St George's, the teaching of reading is our core purpose, and we understand that this underpins every other curriculum subject. Our aim is for our children to become fluent, confident readers, who genuinely enjoy reading and books, and use this skill to further their learning in all areas. 

Throughout Reception and Key Stage 1, we aim to ensure that all pupils develop a secure knowledge of phonics, that they are then able to apply to read an increasingly wide range of texts.  Using the Read, Write, Inc programme, we aspire for all our pupils to reach the end of 'Blue level' by the time they leave Year 1, in order that they are able to access the reading requirements of the Year 2 curriculum.

Reading is taught through the Read, Wrtie, Inc programme. Throughout Year 1 and Year 2, and after the Autumn Term in Reception, children are set in mixed-age groups, so that they receive targeted teaching within the phonics level in which they are working. They have daily lessons for 1 hour Monday-Thursday, and are taught one new 'sound' per day, which they then have the opportunity to apply in relation to reading and spelling during the session. Children revisit the sound they have been taught throughout that day, and every day for the next week, as continuous recall enables them to embed this within their long-term memory. 

Children's learning in phonics is assessed every half term, in order that we are able to identify gaps in their knowledge and provide support to address these, and so that we ensure all pupils receive high-quality, targeted teaching within the phonics group which best meets their needs. However, groupings are flexible and can be adjusted at an any time. 

Some pupils may need further support with learning to read, and this is provided through intervention. Provision is made for selected pupils to attend intervention sessions, either before or after school or during the day, during which they will work on activities which target any sounds they are finding it difficult to remember or apply. 

Once pupils have moved beyond the Read, Write, Inc they are grouped separately with a teacher to learn the skills of comprehension and application of phonics through our bespoke reading programme, as well as develop their writing skills. 

We regularly review the impact of our phonics and reading curruculum, and use a wide range of information, including pupil progress data, to enable us to do this.

During academic year 2018-2019, 70% of our pupils reached the age-related expectation in phonics, assessed by the phonics screening at the end of Year 1. At the end of Year 2, 79% of pupils achieved the expected level in reading in their end of KS1 SATs, with 20% working at greater depth. At the end of Year 6, 87% of pupils achieved the expected level for reading in their KS2 SATs, with 47%  working at greater depth.