Staff, children and families at Ellacombe C of E Academy have received a letter from the Minister of Schools Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP congratulating them on their excellent results in early reading. Ellacombe C of E Academy is in the top 3% of all school a nationally for their achievement in the Phonics Screening Check.
The letter states: “Your success in Phonics teaching means that your pupils are developing a firm foundation in reading, from which they can become increasingly fluent and develop a lifelong love of reading.”
As part of the academy’s focus on early excellence in reading, achievement in Phonics has been above the national averages for the past 5 years and was in top 5% in 2016.
Mrs Semmens, Head of Academy, said: “Developing confident, fluent readers, who have a passion for reading is at the heart of Ellacombe C of E Academy and we are delighted that the hard work, dedication and expertise in Phonics has been once again recognised. Reading is a key life skill which, once mastered, brings such joy to children and we are thrilled that our children develop as such confident readers from an early age.”
The academy’s RWInc Phonics scheme is a large part of their success and their consistency high quality teaching in Phonics is recognised as Ellacombe is a Model School. Ellacombe is part of the Learning Academy Partnership (South West), a Multi Academy Trust with 8 academies across Torbay and Devon. Reading is not just a passion at Ellacombe, but across all of the academies in the Trust.
Mrs Semmens concluded: “By working together to share expertise and driven by our ‘Children First’ values, we are thrilled that children in our academies are showing their confidence with early reading. A huge thank you must go to our families who work so closely with the academy on their children’s reading.”