Read, Write, Inc. Phonics is the chosen scheme at Acre View Primary School.

Pupils who are reading below age related expectations are taught RWI Phonics on a daily basis. They complete RWI reading and writing activities on a 1:1 or small group basis as ability levels and individual needs can vary greatly. The timings of lessons are personalised as some pupils require short breaks to self-regulate between tasks. Assessments are carried out every six weeks to ensure progression and identify/target gaps in learning.

Read, Write, Inc. has a large collection of lively phonic story books and also phonics non-fiction books. These are closely matched to pupils' increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.

Other resources to support our pupils include:

• Picture Sound Cards; Green and Red Word Cards
• Picture Friezes; Simple and Complex Speed Sound Posters
• Phonics practice quizzes and activity.

Pupils in Y5 and above who are reading below age-related expectations and have gaps in their phonic knowledge partake in Fresh Start lessons on a 1:1 or small group basis. Pupil progress is tracked every six to eight weeks, which ensures all pupils are working at their full potential and sustaining expected progress. Form tutors and English teachers are informed of each pupil's progress. This level of communication is paramount in order for all teachers to know how best to support children’s early reading and writing skills through all lessons. 

We are delighted to tell you that we will be launching Oxford Reading Buddy throughout the school. This is a digital reading service to support children’s reading development at home as well as at school. 

Oxford Reading Buddy contains hundreds of digital books and book-quizzes all matched to each child’s reading ability. Children can earn badges for good reading behaviours, be coached in their understanding by their personal ‘Reading Buddy’, take quizzes and record all the reading they do. Everything is captured so that your child’s teacher can see how they’re getting on.

Please log in to Oxford Reading Buddy when your child brings home their sign-in card and have a look around. Do encourage your child to use it regularly and discuss what they are reading with them. You might be interested in watching them reading one or two of the Coaching eBooks because Reading Buddy is a good model of how to support and encourage children’s comprehension skills as they read.

When your child is taking a quiz, please try to provide a quiet workspace for them, but resist the temptation to help them because their answers will help your child’s teacher understand their needs.

If you don’t have a tablet or PC at home, the service works on smartphones as well.

It’s important to be aware that Oxford Reading Buddy is a new service and the programme is still working out ways that they can improve their service. Therefore, please be patient as there may be some glitches that you come across when accessing the website and let your child’s class teacher know so that they can pass this information on to the Oxford Reading Buddy support team. 

For more detailed information, go to this address and choose Parent Support: https://support.oxfordreadingbuddy.com/ or look at the introductory video at https://www.oxfordreadingbuddy.com/uk .

When students are uploaded to Oxford Reading Buddy, they will automatically be placed on the Oxford Reading Level best matched to the expected level for their year group. We have a large range of beautiful fiction and non-fiction books for the pupils to choose from our school library. 

The ‘Ready, Steady Comprehension’ scheme is followed to exposes the children to a variety of diverse, challenging and thematic texts, including: fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

It provides a clear teaching sequence to reading sessions that explicitly teach reading skills and strategies in a cumulative way through evidence-based approaches. The units have been constructed so that the entire statutory curriculum for reading is covered. In EYFS and KS1, the Steps to Read texts are provided for whole class shared reading led by teacher.