Phonics & Reading

Phonics and Reading at the Meadows

Intent

At the Meadows School, reading is a fundamental aspect of our curriculum and a key priority within our commitment to delivering a high-quality education for all learners. We recognise that reading is not simply a subject to be taught but a vital life skill that enables pupils to make sense of the world, communicate effectively, and access learning across the curriculum.

In our setting, reading is interpreted in its broadest and most inclusive sense. We recognise that for some pupils, especially those with complex or profound and multiple learning difficulties, reading involves deriving meaning from symbols, objects, photographs, tactile cues, or auditory stimuli—not only from text.

Guided by the National Curriculum (2014) and The Reading Framework (2023), our intent is to ensure every pupil develops their ability to access meaning—whether through conventional reading or through alternative communication systems. We aim to develop core reading behaviours and comprehension through a carefully sequenced, personalised curriculum that is ambitious and appropriate for each learner.

Implementation

Our approach to teaching reading is highly differentiated, evidence-informed, and designed to reflect the diverse needs, starting points, and communication methods of our pupils.

Early Reading Skills

For pupils not yet ready for formal phonics, we begin with a strong emphasis on listening and attention, sound discrimination, and language awareness. This includes:

  • Recognising and responding to environmental and instrumental sounds
  • Engaging with body percussion, rhythm, and rhyme
  • Exploring voice sounds and practising oral blending and segmenting
  • Participating in interactive songs, stories, and sensory experiences

These early skills are essential building blocks in developing the cognitive and auditory processing skills needed for future reading.

Inclusive and Multisensory Approaches

For many of our learners, particularly those with significant sensory or communication needs, reading involves making connections between stimuli and meaning. Our curriculum uses:

  • Object-based learning and Objects of Reference
  • Tactile and visual symbols, including PECS, symbol books, and electronic AAC devices
  • Sensory stories, combining language with real-world stimuli
  • Structured phonics, introduced when pupils are ready, through carefully chosen schemes adapted for SEND learners

This flexible delivery ensures that all pupils experience reading in a way that is meaningful, engaging, and accessible.

Staff Training and Curriculum Sequencing

Our staff receive professional development in:

  • Supporting early communication and cognition
  • Delivering high-quality phonics for identified learners
  • Using inclusive literacy strategies (e.g., sensory storytelling, intensive interaction)

Curriculum progression is mapped using a bespoke progression model based on individual EHCP outcomes and appropriate assessment frameworks such as Engagement Model, Routes for Learning outcomes, Communication frameworks etc.

Impact

We assess the impact of our reading curriculum through pupil progress towards individualised targets, alongside broader measures of engagement, communication, and independence.

Key indicators of impact include:

  • Improved attention and listening behaviours
  • Increased engagement with reading materials and reading routines
  • Development in pupils' ability to anticipate, recognise, and respond to cues
  • For some pupils, progress in word recognition, decoding, and comprehension
  • Increased confidence and motivation to engage with books, symbols, or sensory cues

 

PHONICS

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a structured phonics programme developed by Ruth Miskin, designed to support children of all abilities in making rapid progress in reading and writing. It also helps us work together with you to nurture a lifelong love of reading in your child.

At the heart of RWI is the dynamic and engaging teaching of synthetic phonics. Children learn the 44 common sounds of the English language and practise blending these sounds to read (decode) words, while simultaneously developing their writing and spelling (encoding) skills.

As their decoding confidence grows, children are guided in understanding texts and generating their own ideas for writing. They also enjoy reading lively and engaging storybooks that are carefully matched to their reading level—ensuring early success and a sense of achievement in reading.

At the Meadows school students are assessed by the Phonics Lead and grouped according to their ability. Small group phonics lessons are taught three times a week by trained staff and there are consistent expectations across the range of abilities. At the end of each term the children are assessed to check on their progress and regrouped. The online assessment system is unique in giving the full picture for every child by tracking individual progress. It also provides comprehensive data analysis at group and school level. This automatic analysis gives you more time to act on the data.  

The rationale for our choice of RWI is that it offers the routine and structure that our pupils often rely on to enable them to make sense of the world. We group pupils according to their progress in reading rather than their writing. This is because it is known that pupils’ progress in writing will lag behind progress in reading, especially for those whose motor skills are less well developed.

The pupils learn sounds and the letters or groups of letters they need to represent them. Simple mnemonics help them to grasp this quickly. This is especially useful for pupils at risk of making slower progress. This learning is consolidated daily. Pupils have frequent practice in reading high frequency words with irregular spellings – common exception words.

We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the common exception words. Students are provided with home reading texts that align with current groupings.  This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher further supports their increasingly fluent decoding.  Alongside this, the teachers read a wide range of stories, poetry and non-fiction to pupils; they are soon able to read these texts for themselves.

Embedding the alphabetic code early on means that pupils quickly learn to write simple words and sentences. We encourage them to compose each sentence aloud until they are confident to write independently.

Formative assessment is completed by staff at school throughout phonics sessions and the learning process to monitor knowledge of sounds and to inform sessions.

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is built on five core principles – the Five Ps:

  1. Pace – Every moment of the lesson counts! Sessions are fast-paced, engaging, and interactive, keeping children actively involved in a fun and creative way.
  2. Praise – Positive reinforcement is at the heart of every session. Children thrive when their efforts are recognised and celebrated. Rather than focusing on mistakes, we highlight what they do well.
  3. Purpose – Every activity is intentional. At the start of each lesson, the teacher clearly explains the learning objective, so children understand exactly what they are aiming to achieve.
  4. Participation – Every child is actively involved in every part of the lesson. Through paired work and choral responses, all learners have the opportunity to engage fully and contribute.
  5. Passion – Our staff are enthusiastic and committed to the success of the Read Write Inc. programme. We love teaching it—and that energy is infectious! Our passion inspires children and builds their excitement for learning.

We teach children to use pure sounds (for example, ‘m’ not ‘muh’, ‘s’ not ‘suh’) to make it easier for them to blend sounds into words when reading.

Children are introduced to Fred, our Read Write Inc. mascot. Fred can only speak in sounds, so the children help him learn how to blend them into full words. For instance, Fred might say “m-a-t” instead of “mat.”

We also remind Fred—and the children—not to add extra sounds like ‘uh’ to the end of letters, so sounds stay pure. For example, we say ‘c’ not ‘cuh’.

Reading

Children will:

  • Learn the 44 sounds in the English language and the corresponding letters or letter groups, supported by simple picture prompts
  • Blend sounds to read words confidently and accurately
  • Read engaging storybooks that include words they have learned to decode
  • Develop comprehension skills by engaging in meaningful discussions and answering questions about the stories

Writing

Children will:

  • Learn to write letters and letter groups that represent the 44 sounds
  • Practise spelling words by identifying sounds and writing the corresponding graphemes
  • Build sentences orally, using rich and adventurous vocabulary
  • Progress from writing simple sentences to more complex ones as their skills develop throughout the programme

Speaking and Listening

Children are grouped according to their reading level, ensuring they learn with peers at a similar stage. This enables full participation and focused progress.

Working in pairs, children:

  • Answer every question actively
  • Practise all activities together
  • Take turns speaking, developing confidence and communication skills

For more information about RWI, click this link to visit the  Ruth Miskin website.

Reading for Pleasure

DEAR (Drop Everything and Read!)

Drop Everything and Read is a great way to create fun and excitement around reading for pleasure. It sends a message that reading for pleasure is important, and something everyone should make time for. Any school, group, family or individual can Drop Everything and Read. 

Students Drop everything and read every day after lunchtime activities. DEAR provides students with the opportunity to have a dedicated reading session aimed at fostering a love of reading. It gives pupils an opportunity to tap into their interests and supports both reading progression and vocabulary development.

In 1990, Professor Rudine Sims Bishop published an article called “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors”. The article shared the importance of all children seeing themselves reflected in what they read.

The suggested list of books that we use offers:

  • windows into the lives of all children
  • mirrors for children’s own lives.

The booklist is diverse and offer inclusive books for students. All children see themselves in stories. All children are seen. Stories help children become empathetic and reflective. Themes on our Meadows list include: family and friendship; exploring feelings; kindness and community; our planet; change and bereavement; moving home or country; the power of speaking up.

  1. Make story time sacrosanct - Refer to the core set of books for each term. (Include story books, poetry, rhymes, non-fiction; topics from across the curriculum).
  2. Choose some ‘old and gold’ and ‘new and bold’ stories. Use ‘Choose the best stories for your story times’ to help you.
  3. Below you have been provided with a ‘favourite five’ and then move onto the next five… and the next…these are provided for you below.
  4. Read the favourite five again and again – with feeling. This means preparation.
  5. Get children into the habit of talking to a partner to respond to questions, and then selecting partners to respond to the group.
  6. Chat about what might happen, a character’s actions, anxieties and fears, say funny sentences together…

 

At The Meadows all pathways DEAR after lunch for 15 minutes. All staff are provided with the ‘favourite five’ texts across all key stages to ensure students get a variety and not read the same story throughout their whole life time at The Meadows exposing students to so much more vocabulary.