We recognise that reading is a complex process but one that is fundamental for learning in every subject and beyond the classroom. We believe that reading promotes well-being as well as life choices and we are committed to supporting our students’ reading journeys. However, we also recognise that not all students, when they arrive at our academy, have the ability to blend sounds, decode or read with prosody. At Bluecoat Wollaton Academy, we make it our mission to ensure that every student is a fluent reader, able to access a rich curriculum, through our use of early phonics intervention in Year 7 and Year 8. This is a regular programme with a class teacher, conducted alongside further small group and 1:1 interventions with specially trained academic coaches.

Our specially trained team of phonics teachers deliver the ReadWrite Inc. curriculum, targeted towards secondary learners and part of the Department for Education’s approved list of providers. As part of the Ruth Miskin curriculum, each day students work together learning new letter sounds, practising blending and reviewing irregular sound patterns. They read age-appropriate stories as well as non-fiction texts to both broaden their cultural capital whilst following an increasing system of challenge which matches their growing phonic knowledge. As an intervention, the aim is always that students will move beyond phonics into our further reading intervention programmes which support them during form times, alongside their studies. Once students graduate from this programme, they have the ability to read accurately and fluently – fully accessing the curriculum in all subjects.