Reading

At Elm Academy we believe that reading underpins the entire curriculum and therefore put it at the forefront of pupil’s learning. Our aim is for every pupil, irrespective of background, to become fluent and confident readers. From the moment pupils join Elm Academy, we encourage them to build progressively on reading skills whilst engaging them in high quality, enjoyable texts. We do this through rigorous and meticulous planning, carefully monitoring the sounds and reading skills pupils are being taught, regular half termly assessments to monitor outcomes and ensuring the books they are reading are in line with these. This gives our pupils the opportunity to embed and apply new learning before moving onto more challenging texts. This not only develops their skills as readers but fosters a love of reading, something we hope they build upon and keep for life. By embedding reading into our curriculum (carefully choosing a range of challenging texts from a wide variety of authors and genres) we ensure pupils are exposed to reading opportunities consistently, giving them the opportunity to embed and extend their understanding in a range of contexts.

We teach phonics using the Read Write Inc (RWI) synthetic phonics scheme. This begins during the summer term in Nursery and continues until the end of Year 2 or if they complete the programme. When pupils have completed the scheme they move onto RWI Comprehension until the end of Year 2.