Early Reading
The reading journey begins the moment children start at Foxmoor. We follow Ruth Miskin’s acclaimed ‘Read, Write, Inc’ programme whose mission is to teach every child to read, and keep reading. Read Write Inc. programmes work because they get children’s brain ‘COGS’ working:
Everything CONNECTS: children connect sounds with mnemonic pictures; words with their meanings; and stories with the sounds they know. They connect their own experiences to the stories they read and learn to lift the words off the page.
Children learn ONE thing at a time and practise it until it becomes second nature. Interactive practice keeps children focused, and their capacity to learn develops exponentially.
They learn at their GOLDILOCKS spot (not too easy, not too hard) with others at a similar challenge level. Regular assessments ensure that no time is wasted and children are taught at the level appropriate to them.
Children remember what they learn by SAYING it aloud to a partner. If they can’t explain it, the teacher repeats it until they can.
Through our RWI approach to teaching phonics, children learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form each letter, spell correctly, and compose their ideas step-by-step.
Through daily RWI lessons with teachers and teaching assistants, our children work in small groups to learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes.
They experience success from the very beginning. Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.