At Danesholme Academies, our curriculum is designed so that every child will 'Be Ready':

 

Ready to Learn — In Reading, we provide a rich, structured curriculum that develops strong early reading skills. Children are ready to decode, understand, and enjoy a wide range of texts.

 

Ready for Life — Reading builds confidence, imagination, and communication skills. Children learn to use reading to explore ideas, gain knowledge, and understand the world around them.

 

Ready to Contribute — Reading promotes empathy, respect, and shared experiences. Children learn to discuss stories, listen to others, and appreciate different perspectives.

 

Ready to Succeed — With clear progression in phonics, fluency, and comprehension, children are supported to achieve well. High expectations and regular reading practice ensure they are ready for the next stage of their learning.

 

At Danesholme Infant Academy, we use the Read Write Inc. program to provide a robust and systematic approach to teaching phonics, reading, and writing. We aim to ensure that every child becomes a confident and fluent reader, equipped with the skills necessary to decode and comprehend texts effectively.

Our objectives are to:

• Foster a love for reading and writing from an early age.
• Develop strong phonics skills that form the foundation for reading and writing.
• Enable children to read fluently and with good understanding.
• Encourage children to write clearly, accurately, and coherently, adapting their language and style for a range of contexts, purposes, and audiences.
• Support children in developing a rich vocabulary and an understanding of grammar and punctuation.

By implementing the Read Write Inc. program, we strive to create a stimulating and supportive learning environment where every child can achieve their full potential in literacy. We believe that these skills are essential for academic success and lifelong learning.

 

Implementation

Delivery of Phonics

-Initial sounds are to be taught in a specific order.

-Sounds taught should be ‘pure’ ie ‘b’, not ‘buh’ as this is central to phonic teaching and ability to recognise sounds in words.

-Pupils are to be taught that the number of graphemes in a word always corresponds to the number of phonemes. This greatly aids spelling.

-Set 2 sounds are to be taught after Set 1 (initial sounds).

-Letter names are to be introduced with Set 3 

Phonics is taught across Nursery, Reception and KS1 as well as in intervention sessions across KS2 when needed, using the RWI programme of study.

This is a scheme, developed by Ruth Miskin, which provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching Literacy. We teach in this way because, research shows that, when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read. According to the DfE (Department for Eduction), ‘almost all children who receive good teaching of phonics, will learn the skills they need to tackle new words’. They can then go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for enjoyment.

 

At Danesholme Infant Academy, we realise the importance of phonics as it provides children with the building blocks needed to become successful readers. Through the RWI programme, they are taught how to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes, identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make – such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’ and then blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word. Children can then use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ new words they hear or see. Phonics resources are displayed in each classroom across the school, including the RWI sounds and tricky red words. The children are encouraged to use these to support their writing in all lessons across the curriculum.

Here is an overview of Read, Write, Inc,

 

Impact

The implementation of the Read Write Inc. (RWI) program at Danesholme Infant Academy has had a transformative impact on our students’ literacy skills. Through this structured and systematic approach to teaching phonics, reading, and writing, we have observed significant improvements in our students’ reading fluency, comprehension, and overall confidence in literacy.

Key Impacts:

• Enhanced Reading Fluency: Students are now able to decode words more quickly and accurately, leading to smoother and more fluent reading.
• Improved Comprehension: With a strong foundation in phonics, students better understand the texts they read, allowing them to engage more deeply with the material.
• Increased Confidence: The success students experience with the RWI program has boosted their self-esteem and motivation to read and write.
• Closing the Achievement Gap: The program has been particularly effective in supporting disadvantaged students, helping to close the literacy gap and ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed.
• Parental Engagement: Resources  provided to parents and teacher/parent dialogue have empowered them to support their children’s learning at home, creating a collaborative effort between school and home.

Overall, the RWI program has been instrumental in fostering a love for reading and writing among our students, setting them on a path to academic success and lifelong learning.

 

When pupils have leaned to read with fluency after completing Read, Write, Inc, they move through to a rich novel led curriculum, we explore new worlds, develop our cultural capital and broaden our cross curricular knowledge and skills in contextual learning experiences. In addition to the many, varied books that we read for pleasure in our academy our curriculum was designed with careful consideration of equality, diversity and inclusion. 

 

Reading beyond the reading lessons

Ensuring that all children are readers is a paramount priority at the academy. All children read daily, within adapted phonics groups, in class with an adult or reading for pleasure in our high-quality library or book corners. Children are read to by adults daily, inspirational books are the basis of our curriculum planning and delivery. This includes a range of genres and text styles, carefully selected to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is represented; children see themselves in stories and all children are seen.

The development of language and vocabulary is prioritised through our book led learning and rich opportunities for quality talk are exploited throughout the curriculum.

Parents are welcomed into the academy on a regular basis to attend reading support at home workshops and to read for pleasure with their child. Children have access to books for themselves to read that are fully decodable and matched to their reading ability and a range of texts that can be shared for pleasure. Where children do not make the required progress, additional support is in place to secure a successful reading journey for our pupils.

Parents are given phonics and reading support through regular messages home through Dojo.