Reading at Three Peaks

All children in our school will leave as fluent, confident readers with excellent comprehension skills to prepare them for the next stage in their education.  We will also nurture a passion for reading, broadening our children’s minds and horizons.

At Three Peaks Primary Academy, reading is a top priority and is a key driver within our curiosity curriculum. Reading is vital skill for success in all areas of the curriculum and is an essential tool for gaining knowledge and understanding. It provides an insight into the wider world, cultures and history. We believe that all pupils should have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully comprehend and understand a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts. We want pupils to develop a love of reading, a good knowledge of a range of authors and be able to understand more about the world in which we live in. Our intent is to ensure that by the end of their primary education, all pupils are able to read fluently and with confidence in any subject.

Phonics

At Three Peaks, we teach phonics systematically from Reception to year 2 for  an hour each day of the week through the Read Write Inc Programme.  Nursery children will begin to access Read Write Inc in the Spring term, learning single sounds and the pictures that represent those sounds.

Children are assessed every half-term by the phonics assessment team and placed into homogeneous groups depending upon their phonetic decoding skills.

Phonics Sessions

Each group is led and taught by a RWI trained member of staff.  During every session, the teacher delivers content appropriate to the group’s reading level. Some sessions solely focus on the teaching of the Set 1 speed sounds, others focus on a sound alongside a ditty or storybook which is changed weekly.  The phonics session is broken up into 3 parts. The first part of the lesson lasts for 10-15 minutes and is referred to as the ‘speed sounds’ part of the lesson. The second part (depending on the group’s ability) allows the children to read their in-school RWI book practising their fluency and comprehension skills. In the final part of the lesson the children complete written tasks, which increase as they progress through the scheme.

Pinny Time

‘Pinny Time’ happens at points throughout the day, in Reception and Year 1 classes. This is an opportunity for the children to quickly read and practise their speed sounds as their teacher flashes through them. Pinny time can be targeted (1:1 or in a small group) or the brief whole class teaching of a sound.

Supporting the lowest 20% of readers

We are informed of our lowest 20% of readers from Reception to Year 2 through RWI assessments, mock phonic screening and through our professional teaching judgments. These children are supported through 1:1, or small group, coaching with a RWI trained member of staff each afternoon of the week for approximately 10 minutes. This is an intervention which is specific to each individual child depending upon their reading ability and next steps.

For those children who leave key stage 1 having not achieved the statutory phonics screening daily phonics sessions continue as 1:1 or small group coaching with a RWI trained member of staff, where appropriate.  These children are also identified by the SENCO and additional further support is put in place, as needed, to remove barriers to reading for that child.

Writing at Three Peaks

To develop the appropriate subject specific knowledge, skills and understanding as set out in the National Curriculum, we have undertaken a multifaceted approach to writing, whereby all subject areas include the opportunities for pupils to express their thoughts in a range of written styles. Careful links are made to ensure that writing is used as a meaningful communication tool across all subjects. Pupils are exposed to a range of exemplar texts, from across different genres and subject areas, to embed ambitious vocabulary choices and secure expectations of writing across the curriculum. This exposure to a variety of curricular areas encourages a range of writers and writing styles. Writing is a crucial skill that is embedded across all year groups; consolidation of fine motor skills and phonic strategies are implemented in the EYFS and KS1 and working towards securing confidence with independent pieces is the priority in KS2. We are intent on our pupils leaving Three Peaks Primary Academy with a certainty that they are able to communicate effectively in writing – and to enjoy being able to express themselves in this way.

The Write Stuff

Children in Years 2-5 follow ‘The Write Stuff’. With this strategy, children are encouraged to build their own version of a text using the shapes or plot points that break down each genre to support them. They collect high level vocabulary that they can use in their writing, often inspired by a stimulus. Sentences are modelled by the class teacher who shares the ‘writer’s brain’, thinking aloud, to develop children’s writing craft. Children are then asked to produce their own sentences based on lenses from the writing rainbow, known as sentence stacking.

The Write Stuff is based on two guiding principles; teaching sequences that slide between experience days and sentence stacking lessons. With modelling at the heart of them, the sentence stacking lessons are broken into bite-sized chunks. Teachers prepare children for writing by modelling the ideas, grammar or techniques of writing.

• Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.
• Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.
• Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.

Children are challenged to ‘Deepen the Moment’ which requires them to independently draw upon previously learnt skills and apply them to their writing during that chunk.

Following the completion of a ‘Sentence Stacking’ sequence, pupils then plan and write independent texts where they are able to show the writing skills they have been developing.