Phonics

 

At St. Mary's we follow the National Curriculum to build children's reading, improving their use of texts at their decoding level. We use the Read, Write Inc. (RWI) phonics programme in the teaching of early reading. 

Read Write Inc. Phonics is a DfE-validated systematic synthetic phonics programme with a wholeschool approach to teaching early reading and writing, designed to ensure progress for every child, in every primary school. Children learn to read sounds and blend them into words. They apply this phonic knowledge to read and comprehend Storybooks that are carefully matched to the sounds they know. Children learn to read these books with a storyteller’s voice.

If you have any questions about RWI, please contact school and  the staff, led by Mrs Grange (Infants) and Miss McCormack (Juniors), will be happy to help. 

The aim of Read Write Inc. Phonics is for children to learn to read early. By the end of term 2 in Year 2 children are able to read stories at over 100 words per minute.
They also learn how to form letters using mnemonics to help them. They learn to spell correctly using their Fred fingers. And they learn to compose their own writing - drawing upon ideas from the story they’ve just read. Everything knits together.

While your children are learning to read, they work in progress groups to master each level of phonics and reading. They are assessed and re-groups children every half-term. Children work in these progress group each day, learning at their ‘challenge’ level.

Partner work is critical in helping children to progress. They practise everything we teach them and answer every question with a partner. This keeps children working and thinking throughout the lesson – and gives us a chance to check whether we’ve explained things clearly. Everyone uses the same management signals - whether you're the headteacher, teacher or teaching assistant. Once these signals are automatic, children and teachers can focus on what matters most - learning to read.

In KS2, we continue to use Read, Write Inc to support children's individual needs. All staff in Y3 and Y4 have expertise in the delivery of phonics and phonics lessons are timetabled in Year 3 and 4.

 

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is an inclusive phonics programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. At St Mary's, we continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still require support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at 

 

Children will be taught how to read as follows:

Before you start to teach your child, practise saying the sounds below. These are the sounds we use to speak in English.

Fred Talk

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.

At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! we call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.

The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets. 

Step 1:

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending. Please do not use letter names at this early stage. Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Step 2:

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

 Nonsense words (Alien words)          

As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term. 

Step 3:

Children will be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp:

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences.

Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.

Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.

Once your child has been introduced and taught these words in school we will send them home for you to continue practising with your child.

During the RWI session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills.   

Home Reading

Children working within the Read Write Inc Phonics programme will receive a RWI Book Bag to take home each week. The book will be matched to the stage and sounds the children are working on, to allow them to practise their decoding and blending skills at the correct level. This book should be practised at home, with a recommendation that it is read three times, over different evenings, to allow the children to, at first decode new words, then allow the words to become more familiar, so that on the final read they can read the text fluently. We also ask that parents discuss the content to aid their comprehension skills. 

As well as their book bag, each child has access to the Oxford Owl Read Write Inc phonics e-library. The staff member working with their group sets access to the e-book version on the book they are working on in their group, so that reading done in sessions, can be continued and practised at home. Each e-book comes with a quiz that can be completed alongisde the home reading. By matching these to the children's assessed stage of phonics learning, they can practise and build on their abilities and knowledge at the right stage, progressing quickly. 

 

Phonics Screening Test

At the end of Year 1 children are assessed using the National Phonics Screening Test and this is repeated for those who did not achieve the appropriate level at the end of Year 2. This assessment gathers information on the children’s ability to blend and segment decodable words to read.

The children will sit on a one to one basis in a relaxed environment and read 40 decodable words. If a child reads a word incorrectly, the teacher will just move onto the next word. Some words are real words and some are ‘alien’ words. The test is very child friendly and is a great assessment tool for teachers.