Read Write Inc

Read Write Inc Leader - Mrs Barugh

At St Joseph's we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds!

We can achieve this together through:

Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school
Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home

ST JOSEPH’S CURRICULUM - PHONICS

INTENT

IMPLEMENTATION

IMPACT

Reading is a key life skill, we are dedicated to enabling our children to become lifelong readers.

We believe reading is key to academic success.

All children will pass the KS1 Phonics Screening Test.

Phonics is introduced through Letters and Sounds when children join nursery and progression is planned to meet the stage of learning. The progression is planned for by the Letters and Sounds markers however we look at the child’s stage of phonic knowledge and understanding, not just their age.

Children in EYFS and KS1 take part in daily phonic sessions lasting for 40 mins each morning. The children participate in speaking, listening and spelling activities that are matched to their developing needs. The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Children work through the different phases, learning and developing their phonics sounds and knowledge.

Phonics teaching is complemented by reading. Children are given three books each week for home reading. We use a range of resources to enhance this and our books are banded into colours. Wherever possible, these are fully decodable to develop fluency and understanding. Currently we are looking at the book bands and ensuring they are correctly matching the phonic phases. Children are expected to move through the colours to become fluent and confident readers by the time they leave KS1.

The Letters and Sounds programme begins in Pre-school with Phase 1 and continues to Year 2/3 Phase 6 to ensure a consistency of approach in phonics teaching and learning.

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1.

However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a 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.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.

- YouTube

Read Write Inc guide for parents

Please click on the link below to find lots of free Read Write Inc. Phonics resources to help your child, including eBooks, practice sheets and parent films.

RWI Guide and Resources for Parents

How will my child be taught to read?

We begin by teaching phonics to the children in Reception classes. This involves helping them understand how to "read" the sounds in words and how to write them down. Learning phonics is crucial for reading, and it also helps children to become good spellers. We teach the children methods to help them remember these sounds and letters.

Reading

The children:

Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts
Learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
Read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
Develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions

Writing

The children:

Learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
Learn to write words by using Fred Talk
Learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write

Talking

The children in pairs so that they:

Answer every question
Practise every activity with their partner
Take turns in talking and reading to each other
Develop ambitious vocabulary

Before you start to teach your child, practice saying the sounds below. These are the sounds we use to speak in English. Children initially begin using pictures for each sound, this will help children recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Set 1, 2 and 3

RWI/Sound-Mat-Set-1-2-and-3.pdf

Set 1 Sounds
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. We do not use letter names at this stage.

Set 2 Sounds
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.

Set 2 Speed Sounds
ay	ay: may I play	play, day, may, way, say, spray
ee	ee: what can you see	see, three, been, green, seen, sleep
igh	igh: fly high	high, night, light, fright, bright, might
ow	ow: blow the snow	blow, snow, low, show, know, slow
oo	oo: poo at the zoo	too, zoo, food, pool, moon, spoon
oo	oo: look at a book	took, look, book, shook, cook, foot
ar	ar: start the car	car, start, part, star, hard, sharp
or	or: shut the door	sort, short, horse, sport, fork, snort
air	air: that’s not fair	fair, stair, hair, air, chair, lair
ir	ir: whirl and twirl	girl, bird, third, whirl, twirl, dirt
ou	ou: shout it out	out, shout, loud, mouth, round, found
oy	oy: toy for a boy	toy, boy, enjoy

Set 3 Speed Sounds
Sound	Phrase	Words to practice reading and spelling
ea	Cup of tea	clean, dream, seat, scream, real
oi	Spoil the boy	join, voice, coin
a-e	Make a cake	make, cake, name, same, late, date
i-e	Nice smile	smile, white, nice, like, time, hide
o-e	Phone home	home, hope, spoke, note, broke, phone
u-e	Huge brute	tune, rude, huge, brute, use, June
aw	Yawn at dawn	saw, las, dawn, crawl, paw, yawn
are	Care and share	share, dare, scare, square, bare
ur	Nurse with a purse	burn, turn, spurt, nurse, purse, hurt
er	A better letter	never, better, weather, after, proper, corner
ow	Brown cow	how, down, brown, cow, town, now
ai	Snail in the rain	snail, paid, tail, train, paint, rain
oa	Goat in a boat	goat, boat, road, throat, toast, coat
ew	Chew the stew	chew, new, blew, flew, drew, grew
ire	Fire! Fire!	Fire, hire, wire, bon/fire, in/spire, con/spire
ear	Hear with your ear	hear, dear, fear, near, year, ear
ure	Sure it’s pure	pure, sure, cure, pic/ture, mix/ture, ad/ven/ture

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 toy frog 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 following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred.

Within all the RWI sessions/books children will be exposed to 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.

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. Books will go home with children after the third read. Please ensure the RWI book is in your child's bag every day.

Spelling with Fred Fingers

Children are taught to use their fingers to help them write words. The children say the word out loud and break it down into its individual sounds. If a word has 3 sounds children hold up 3 fingers, 4 sounds 4 fingers etc. Children pinch each finger as they say the sounds needed in the word then they write the letters that represent each sound.

<Back to Curriculum