Reading at WECPS

At WECPS we are passionate about reading.  

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We choose our whole class texts carefully to help us ...

• develop our knowledge of the wider curriculum
• support our wellbeing by using the positive messages from to reflect in our own lives
• develop our empathy towards others by understanding more about the characters in the stories

At Whitley and Eggborough we are proud to teach Early reading through ‘Read, Write Inc’.  This programme is proven to be extremely effective in helping children to become confident and independent readers and writers by introducing letters and sounds, and teaching strategies for reading and writing words.

We ensure training and monitoring of reading is in place and it is regularly reviewed. The systematic, synthetic phonics programme of Read Write Inc is delivered daily to EYFS and KS1. Pupils new to English in KS2 who require reading support, access the Read, Write Inc. fast track tutoring programme via small group focused interventions to ‘keep up not catch up.’

Develop a love of reading 

Our staff and children are absolutely passionate about reading! Children are exposed to a wide range of texts and authors including traditional tales, poetry, non-fiction and new authors.Teachers read to their classes throughout the school day during whole class reading or sharing books for pleasure at the end of the school day. Children have the daily opportunity to spend time quietly reading independently or 1:1 with a member of staff. This enables our learners to be fully engaged with their books.

We are proud of our school library, which is looked after by a selection of year 6 children who relish in the responsibility. All children have access Monday-Friday. The school library is regularly restocked and children are consulted on the selection of new reading books we purchase.  We also invite guest authors (local) into school to read aloud to them and conduct writing workshops based on their books- Conrad Burdekin, Terry Caffrey, Karen Langtree and most recently Aisling Fowler - author of the newly published "Fireborn".  

We are looking forward to meeting the author of "Clementine and Florentine" - Tash Harrison.

Our Reading Scheme - RWI, Fresh Start and beyond

When children join us in Reception they begin Read, Write Inc. from day one. The children are assessed half termly and placed into the correct progress group which will provide a tailored level of challenge. Children will remain on scheme until they have completed 'grey group' and 1:1 tutoring is given to children who require it to enable them to 'keep up'. LKS2 support the pupils transition from RWI with a focus on prosody and expression when reading aloud through reading and rereading a selection of texts, improving comprehension and oracy further and providing the children with a strong skill set which is further transferred into UKS2 reading. 

When the children come off RWI, we encourage them to become 'free readers' and choose their own books with the support of the class teacher ensuring the texts are accessible but challenging. As a school we have our own shared library as well as each class having their own small library too. We take pride in providing the children with a wide choice of high quality text to choose from and enjoy. 

Any children in Year 4-6 who we feel may benefit from a reading boost will also take part in small group Fresh Start sessions.