Phonics

At Mere Green, reading is at the heart of our curriculum. We endeavour to develop a life-long enjoyment of reading and books. We provide excellent teaching and learning opportunities so that every pupil will learn to read fluently and confidently, regardless of their background, needs or abilities. In order to achieve this, we follow a systematic phonics programme to ensure all children become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1.

Read Write Inc is a phonics programme for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 who are learning to read. It is also for children in Year 3 and Year 4 who may need extra practise. Within the programme every child learns to:

• Read accurately and fluently, and develop a love of reading
• Spell, handwrite and develop their ideas for writing
• Articulate their understanding and practise what they have been taught 

Children are regularly assessed and grouped according to their current reading ability; not their year group. This ensures all children are reading at the appropriate level of challenge. 

Each day children are:

• Taught new sounds
• Practise reading and spelling words containing these sounds
• Read decodable books containing sounds and words they can read 
• Learn to spell the words they have been reading and develop their ideas into sentences so that they can write about the storybooks they read

Children read each storybook three times in class with their partner. Re-reading the same book helps children to become confident and fluent readers. We set a focus for each read in school:

• The first read focuses on reading every word accurately (decoding)
• The second on reading the story more quickly (fluency)
• The third read on comprehension (understanding what they read)

Then your child brings the same book home to read and enjoy with you again and again to showcase their reading skills. We do not send stories home the children cannot read because we always want them to be set up to succeed in their reading.