Reading is a vital skill which helps children in all areas of their lives both at school and home. At Whitwell Primary School the children in Key Stage One follow the 'Read Write Inc.' phonics teaching program. This is a fun and simple way to introduce the phonic sounds and key words that they will encounter through their early reading experiences.

In Key Stage One children have daily phonics or guided reading sessions to help them to consolidate and extend their reading skills, these lessons are 30 minutes everyday. We encourage children to use their 'Reading Toolkit' which is a set of helpful 'Tools' that they can refer to when they become stuck. These are visible in every class and around school in order for children to become familiar with the ways in which they can tackle new texts. 

The children in Year One will take part in a phonics screening test in June. This will simply involve reading a list of words, some may be familiar to them and others will be made up or 'alien' words. This is to assess their phonic knowledge and understanding and is a National test.

The results of this test will be available when you receive your child's end of year report.

For Year Two, some children will no longer require phonics lessons and they will then participate in guided reading sessions, which focus less on phonics and more on the comprehension of longer and more complicated texts.

These sessions encourage the use of inference skills, help to broaden vocabulary and help children to have more stamina when reading longer pieces of writing.

This in turn helps our Year two children to become well prepared when it is  time for SATs which happen later in the year.