Read Write Inc

At Moorlands Primary School children will secure automatic decoding skills and progress from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ for purpose and pleasure. The ultimate goal of learning to read is to develop comprehension and nurture a life long love of reading.

The school uses 'Read Write Inc'  as the phonic programme which provides a systematic and rigorous approach to the teaching of early reading.

To support with the development of early reading, children have the opportunity to take home two books: a book that they can read independently and a book that they can share with an adult and read together.

Book 1: A book for me to read

Children will bring home two books, one that they have read in school and one that contains the same phonic knowledge, the Read Write Inc books are fully decodable which means they match your child's phonic knowledge. Therefore your child should be able to read this book to you as they have been taught the sounds in school. . These books are labelled with this sticker:

Book 2: A book for us to share and read together

These books are for you to read and share together. These books are not fully decodable so your child will find some of the words in the book challenging. The idea of this book is you read it together and talk about the book. If it is a story: you can talk about the characters, the settings and what happened in the story. If it is an information book you can talk about the new facts that they have learnt.

Key Stage 2 Reading Owls sessions

Moorlands Reading Owls daily session is based on pupils gaining WISDOM to comprehend: Owls are used to represent each reading domain.

W – (Words)finding and explaining the meaning of words in context.

I – (Inference) using clues to understand a story.

S – (Summarising) summarising the main ideas from a text.

D – (Differences and similarities) – making comparisons within a text.

O –  (Oracy and prediction) – predicting what might happen based on what has already happened.

M –  (Meaning)  – identifying how words and information in a text adds to the overall meaning as a whole. 

For those pupils who find reading more challenging, in Years 5 and 6 targeted pupils use the Read Write Inc 'Fresh Start' programme to develop their understanding of phonics and fluency. For those pupils who read fluently in Years 5 and 6 but find comprehension a challenge, pupils are targeted through Reciprocal reading.

2024/25 Reading Quiz Key Stage 1

Wednesbury primary schools took part in the annual Key Stage 1 Reading competition at Albert Pritchard in November.  Moorlands were the winners – a big well done to the team! The children were required to read 2 books ‘ The Diary of a Killer Cat’ by Anne Fine and ‘Little Red Reading Hood’ by Lucy Holden. The children had answer questions on their knowledge of reading and the plots and characters of the books.

Public Speaking Competition

Annually the local Wednesbury schools take part in a public speaking competition. The winners of the school's semi-finals take part in the final at Sandwell Council House - this is judged by the mayor and two additional judges. This year the two additional judges are Mr Foster, West Midlands Police Commissioner and Sally Giles, Director of Children and Education Services in Sandwell. The topic this year is ‘What challenges do children today have compared to the last generation?

Year 6 English

Handwriting - Read Write Inc

Pupils from Reception follow Read Write Inc for phonics. As part of this structured session, pupils are taught letter formation while learning the sounds. This is developed through Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2. Pupils are taught in discrete lessons as well as through the curriculum the importance of letter formation and joins.

Pupils in Year 6 have the opportunity to write in pen if their handwriting is consistently legible, joined and the size is consistent. 

Key Stage 2 Library