Hide Search Bar

Twitter Wall

@freshwatersacadclose
Twitter Image

15/03/24

🔴 Pupils celebrated Red Nose Day and showed their support for the amazing charity 🫂 The children all looked amazing in our assembly this morning and recognised the importance of giving to others. pic.twitter.com/SJx0OAVCna

08/03/24

On we’re celebrating Amy Dias 🙌 Senior Lead Practitioner and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Freshwaters Primary Academy 💙#IWD2024 pic.twitter.com/zCMB4Fs8yB

Twitter Image

08/03/24

On we’re celebrating Amy Dias 🙌 Senior Lead Practitioner and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Freshwaters Primary Academy 💙#IWD2024 pic.twitter.com/zCMB4Fs8yB

08/03/24

On we’re celebrating Jo Mullane 🙌 Senior Lead Practitioner at Freshwaters Primary 💙#IWD2024 pic.twitter.com/jYmTzDsGI7

Twitter Image

08/03/24

On we’re celebrating Jo Mullane 🙌 Senior Lead Practitioner at Freshwaters Primary 💙#IWD2024 pic.twitter.com/jYmTzDsGI7

Twitter Image

07/03/24

📚 It's and pupils kicked off their day with a whole school assembly full of colourful characters🤝 Throughout the day, pupils picked up their books and read in groups to share their stories pic.twitter.com/sWZ45iwoqf

Twitter Image

16/02/24

Our nursery parents and carers joined the team in Hungry Caterpillars to celebrate the Chinese New Year 🐲 pic.twitter.com/0abCBUjVWQ

Twitter Image

30/01/24

🤝 A big thank you to HTS Group Ltd. for providing a funding donation of £1500 to revamp and improve on our outdoor Reception space 🔨 pic.twitter.com/Ts8wfG10WF

26/01/24

Good Luck Mr Newborough! 🏃💨 https://t.co/QxCNIC0Sbh

25/01/24

From the end of your street to the ends of the earth. Open a world of possibilities for children in your area.  Join our high-quality teacher training programme, train locally and start making a difference from day one with expert support at every stage.https://t.co/bBuGvnsFlS pic.twitter.com/Z62U8Dap0t

Twitter Image

25/01/24

From the end of your street to the ends of the earth. Open a world of possibilities for children in your area.  Join our high-quality teacher training programme, train locally and start making a difference from day one with expert support at every stage.https://t.co/bBuGvnsFlS pic.twitter.com/Z62U8Dap0t

19/01/24

BMAT have partnered with to provide School Centred Initial Teacher Training in Essex and London.Our programme offers PGCE with QTS at Primary and Secondary schools in Epping, Harlow, Stansted Mountfitchet and Newham.https://t.co/Rllv13cdOS pic.twitter.com/HgAkrpNCGz

Twitter Image

19/01/24

BMAT have partnered with to provide School Centred Initial Teacher Training in Essex and London.Our programme offers PGCE with QTS at Primary and Secondary schools in Epping, Harlow, Stansted Mountfitchet and Newham.https://t.co/Rllv13cdOS pic.twitter.com/HgAkrpNCGz

Twitter Image

06/12/23

⭐🎄 This morning, pupils in Nursery & reception classes performed their version of the Nativity to their parents and carers.👼 All the children performed amazingly, and you could tell how hard all the children had been practising. pic.twitter.com/Qz1hrY2At0

30/11/23

🎅 Santa's next Stop was , where he was met with a warm welcome from the headteacher and members of the school council 🎄 pic.twitter.com/KL8fVgkGQg

Twitter Image

30/11/23

🎅 Santa's next Stop was , where he was met with a warm welcome from the headteacher and members of the school council 🎄 pic.twitter.com/KL8fVgkGQg

Twitter Image

20/11/23

🧸 After a busy morning, we were happy to welcome a very special guest to meet and greet pupils👏 Thank you to all our parents and carers for supporting us last week with Children in Need and for donating over £300 for an amazing charity 👏 pic.twitter.com/FLQVC7cwMf

Twitter Image

17/11/23

⚽️ Our pupils took part in a pentalty shootout with 🥅 It's safe to say that he took a thrashing at 400 - 0! for pic.twitter.com/JU4FZnTi2w

17/11/23

⚽️No doubt about it - the pupils at Freshwaters Primary Academy in Harlow are definitely winning this penalty shootout! BBC Essex’s is facing at least 400 penalty kicks for 👏£275 raised so far!👏https://t.co/X7HNgCyXh1 pic.twitter.com/giSXNVAYRW

17/11/23

Good luck Rob! ⚽️Our very own is facing at least 400 penalty kicks from pupils at Freshwaters Primary Academy in Harlow, all for Children in Need - and they’ve raised £275 so far! https://t.co/xiKO8Eye5f pic.twitter.com/r8QQi2MBJy

BMAT Logoclose

Outstanding Education

Supporting primary and secondary schools across Essex and North & East London, BMAT is a growing multi-academy trust with a singular vision: schools, teachers and pupils freed to succeed.

Visit BMAT

Early Reading

At Freshwaters Primary Academy, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers.  Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.

We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.  We follow the Ruth Miskin - Read Write Inc phonics scheme.

 

How will my child be taught to read?

We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Ask them to show you what these are.

The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’.

The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. They start thinking that they can read and this does wonders for their confidence.

The teachers read to the children, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.

 

How will I know how well my child is doing?

We will always let you know how well your child is doing.

We use various ways to find out how the children are getting on in reading. We use the information to decide what reading group they should be in. Your child will work with children who are at the same reading level as him or her. Children will move to a different group if they are making faster progress than the others. Your child will have one-to-one support if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up. 

We also use a reading test so that we can make sure that all our children are at the level that they should be for their age compared to all the children across the country.

In the summer term, the government asks us to do a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. That gives us extra information about their progress. We will talk to you about how well your child has done, and especially if we have any worries at all.

How long will it take to learn to read well?

By the end of Year 2, your child should be able to read aloud books that are at the right level for his or her age. In Year 3 we concentrate more on helping children to understand what they are reading, although this work begins very early on. This happens when the teacher reads to the children and also when the children read their own story book.

 

How do I know the teaching will be good?

All the staff have been trained to teach reading in the way we do it in this school. We believe that it is very important that all the teachers and teaching assistants work in the same way. Senior teachers watch other teachers teaching to make sure that the children are learning in the way we want them to learn.

If you are worried about the teaching or you have any questions, please come to school and talk to us.

 

What can I do to help? Is there anything that I shouldn't do?

You will be invited to a meeting so that we can explain how we teach reading. Please come and support your child. We would very much like you to know how to help.

Your child will bring different sorts of books home from school. It helps if you know whether this is a book that your child can read on their own or whether this is a book that you should read to them. The teacher will have explained which is which. Please trust your child’s teacher to choose the book(s) that will help your child the most.

Help your child to sound out the letters in words and then to ‘push’ the sounds together to make a whole word. Try not to refer to the letters by their names. Help your child to focus on the sounds. You can hear how to say the sounds correctly at this link: https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/#lg=1&slide=2

 

Sometimes your child might bring home a picture book that they know well. Please don’t say, ‘This is too easy.’ Instead, encourage your child to tell you the story out loud; ask them questions about things that happen or what they think about some of the characters in the story.

We know parents and carers are very busy people. But if you can find time to read to your child as much as possible, it helps him or her to learn about books and stories. They also learn new words and what they mean. Show that you are interested in reading yourself and talk about reading as a family. You can find out about good stories to read to your child here: https://www.facebook.com/miskin.education

 

Does it matter if my child misses a lesson or two?

It matters a lot if your child misses school. The way we teach children to read is very well organised, so even one missed lesson means that your child has not learnt something that they need to know to be a good reader.

 

What if he or she finds it difficult to learn to read?

We want children to learn to read, however long it takes us to teach them. We will find out very quickly if your child is finding reading difficult. First, we move children to a different group, so that we can make sure that they have learnt what they need to know. If they still struggle, we give them extra time with an adult, on their own. These adults are specially trained to support these children. Your child will still be in the same group with the other children and won’t miss out on any of the class lessons.

If we have any serious worries about your child’s reading, we will talk to you about this.

Some children take a bit longer to learn to put sounds together to read a word, e.g. c-a-t to make the word ‘cat’. At our meeting, we will explain how you can help your child to do this.

 

What if my child turns out to be dyslexic?

The way we teach reading is especially helpful for children who might be dyslexic. This is because we use a very well-organised programme that has a strong focus on phonics. This is very important for children who find learning to read difficult. If you are worried about your child, please come and talk to us.

 

My child has difficulty pronouncing some sounds. Will this stop him learning to read through phonics?

This isn’t a problem for learning to read as long as we know what sound the child is trying to say. This is not something to worry about. Many children have a few sounds that they can hear clearly but find it difficult to say, particularly the l-sound, r-sound, w-sound, th-sound, s-sound, sh-sound and j-sound. Often they say a t-sound for the c-sound; "tttssh" for the s-sound; "w" for the r-sound and "r" for the l-sound. You can help your child by encouraging him or her to look at your mouth when you say the sound. Whatever you do, do not make your child feel a failure. They can easily learn to read, even if they find one or two sounds difficult to say.

Don’t hesitate to contact our Reading Leader, Mrs Pullen, or class teachers if you have any concerns. We are here to help.

 

School website by Cleverbox