Phonics and Reading

''I like Varna because I have learned so much. I have made a huge improvement with my phonics learning.''

Reading and Phonics

How we teach reading

Read Write Inc. Phonics and Reading  programme

Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.  We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.

At Varna Community Primary, we use Read Write Inc Phonics in EYFS and KS1.

Read, Write Inc is a tried and tested, highly successful phonics programme for children aged 4 to 7 who are learning to read and write. It teaches children how to both decode and understand written language to become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. This is achieved by a dynamic approach to teaching phonics that is consistent across the school using the Read, Write Inc phonics resources and fully decodable reading books.

Children are grouped according to their ability in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 to ensure that teaching is matched to their level. Phonics in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 takes place on a daily basis. Children in Key Stage 2 that still require phonics teaching, continue with a specially tailored programme (RWInc) to meet their individual needs. 

Shared Reading forms part of the daily phonics lessons and is led by the teachers. All texts are linked to the child’s phonic ability. Children enjoy one focus per text per week and learning activities support accurate and fluent reading to facilitate comprehension. In addition, children take fully decodable reading books home to further practise skills learnt at school. These books are matched to each child’s phonic ability and are closely monitored by the reading teachers to ensure that children are reading books of an appropriate level. Children also take a school library book of their choice to share at home.

How will my child be taught to read?

We start teaching reading as soon as children start their school journey in Nursery. We delight in making reading a priority in Nursery. The most important starting point is to read to children. Reading to children is the best way of encouraging them to love books and reading. In Nursery we prioritise reading stories aloud to children every day. We also spend time each day providing children with a wealth of listening activities including songs, rhymes and games. By the end of Nursery children will be able to distinguish between speech sounds and many will be able to blend and segment words orally. Some will also be able to recognise spoken words that rhyme and will be able to provide a string of rhyming words. Some children will be ready to start learning synthetic phonics and will move on to our next aspect of phonic teaching: Read, Write Inc.

We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the (Phonemes) sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down (Graphemes). This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well.

We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Once the children have learnt to blend accurately, they start to read with fluency. This is achieved through speedy reading of individual words and repeated reads of their shared reading books. 'Tricky words' such as 'once' 'said' 'the' are not phonetically decodable and these are taught explicitly as part of the reading session.  To develop the child's love of stories, we have dedicated story time, across all Key Stages. The teachers read to the children so that they get to know a variety of stories, poetry and information books this really helps to develop a love of books. We support our most vulnerable readers with extra one-to-one teaching every day.

What can I do to help?

Below are some videos to support parents and carers with the way we teach phonics: