Woodlands Academy is a Reading School
Every child should have the opportunity to experience the enjoyment of reading regardless of their need or any barriers they may face.
At Woodlands Academy we are committed to improving every child’s ability to read and have access to diverse, engaging and enjoyable text.
In 2022, the academy began work with a national literacy consultant to ensure that the academy continues to evolve into a Reading School that inspires and meets the needs of an ever-changing community.
Woodlands Academy Library – at the heart of our academy
Our library is located in the centre of our academy, ensuring it is highly visible and accessible for all children.
Pupils have timetabled slots each week in the library, allowing them to have the opportunity to experience a wealth of age-appropriate and diverse text.
The pupil librarians help organise the library, keep it orderly and remind others to respect the library and return books to their correct area/shelf.
For pupils who cannot yet access reading books, or who are non-verbal, we have a dedicated Sound Corner in the library, with a variety of objects aimed at helping pupils develop their appreciation of different sounds and tones, the first step in beginning to develop phonic understanding before phase
Woodlands Academy – Reading Champions
Our reading champions are pupils who have volunteered to offer one-to-one help to other pupils in reading. They sit with pupils for short sessions either listening to them read, helping with words and pronunciation, or reading to them, demonstrating their own enjoyment in reading.
Pupil Voice:
I like how (T) points out words and helps me with sounds.
I help by breaking down the words and sounding them out.
I like seeing readers progress and see how far they have come.
It makes reading fun.
Reading for pleasure
Reading takes place every day during morning tutor time, with adaptations in place for those pupils who cannot read independently ensuring everyone can experience the pleasures of reading.
Phenomenal Phonics Programme
The academy has adopted the Raleigh Education Trust’s Phenomenal Phonics Programme – a synthetic, systematic approach to the teaching of early reading: explicitly teaching the correspondence between letters and sounds to blend for reading (decoding) and to segment for spelling (encoding). Phenomenal Phonics follows a progression of phases, with this well-evidenced, bespoke approach driven by assessment.
Lexonik Leap Programme
Woodlands Academy recognises due to the needs of some of our pupils and previous learning experience(s), they may have gaps in their phonics knowledge. However, due to their age, our Phenomenal Phonics Programme may not always be appropriate, therefore the academy invested in the Lexonik Leap Programme.
Lexonik Leap is an intervention (group or 1:1) programme that looks to close the phonics gap for pupils who may find literacy particularly challenging, rapidly progressing reading, spelling and oracy.
The programme is based on an initial diagnostic assessment, which can be individualised for the needs of the pupil, including the length of time the intervention is required. Reading at Woodlands Academy is a long-term commitment!