Reading & phonics

We love reading at Paisley Primary School!

Teachers at Paisley enthuse children to have a love of reading. We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. We work hard to make sure children develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.

Learning to read is one of the most important things your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.

We follow the Read, Write, Inc. (RWI) phonics programme as a whole school approach. Daily phonics sessions in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 allow children to explore and learn letters and sounds, which in turn allows them to become fluent and enthusiastic readers. Children learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. Once children can blend sounds together to read words, they practise reading books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know.

In key stages 1 and 2, guided reading sessions allow children the opportunity to practise reading with fluency and confidence. Teachers explore a variety of texts which encourage children to ask questions, explore new genres and discuss books by different authors.

We teach reading fluency to all children, every day. Our teachers use my turn, our turn, your turn to model reading fluently, modelling the following skills:
– pausing
– stress
– phrasing
– rate
– intonation

Teachers regularly read to the children, too, so the children get to know and love a wide variety of stories, poetry and information books. This helps to extend children’s vocabulary and comprehension, as well as support their writing. The children are encouraged to choose books to read as part of their school day and our exciting new school library is full of incredible books which will inspire and encourage children to read.

Support from home is essential if your child is to become a confident reader. Children in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 will bring home a phonics reading book which is carefully matched to the sounds they know and can read independently. They may also bring home a book to be shared with an adult. This book encourages them to look at the pictures, read the words they know and predict what might happen throughout the story. In Key Stage 2, children take home a reading book which is age-appropriate and of their own choosing.

Working together, both at home and school, will allow your child to become a fluent and confident reader. Please try to listen to your child read at least three times a week, or ideally, every day. We also welcome your comments in the Reading Record which goes home with your child’s reading book.

Mrs S Moss is our early reading phonics leader
Mrs Inchbold is our reading beyond phonics and reading for pleasure leader

Further info