Reading and writing

At Blackthorns we believe that being able to read and write are the vital skills that enable us to understand and express ourselves more effectively.

These skills open the door to learning. We passionately believe in helping children to develop not only the technical skills of reading and writing, but also in engendering a love for literature and the different genres of writing.

Our teaching and support staff have been trained in the phonics programme ‘Sounds-Write’, used around the world and graded as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. Children take part in individual and guided reading sessions, led by an adult. Texts are also shared with the whole class, children are read to by the teacher regularly, and they are encouraged to read at home daily.

Our classrooms are full of visual stimulus to help children begin to read and write.

Children learn the link between sounds and symbols at a very early stage and begin to write the sounds covered immediately.