Woodthorpe Church of England Primary School
Learning & Growing Together To Be The Best We Can Be
Phonics
At Woodthorpe we are following Read, Write, Inc (RWI) programme for phonics.
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/
To support your child at home encourage them to sound out when they are trying to decode new words.
A clip below to show how to pronounce the phonemes accurately:
Early reading starts with phonics and developing good phonics skills in younger children is vitally important. We begin phonics as soon as children in Early Years and Key Stage One start school in September.
We value phonics and we aim to have:
- 20 minutes of phonics at least four times a week in Early Years.
- 40 minutes of phonics at least four times a week in Key Stage 1.
What is Read Write Inc?
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a consistent, rigorous and dynamic literacy programme to teach EVERY child to read by the age of six. Using synthetic phonics, children quickly learn to blend letter sounds together following a fun and effective programme.
How can I help my child?
Many parents wish to help their child at home learn to read. When children are learning to read and write it is much easier to say the sounds in a pure way. This also helps children to segment words in order to be able to spell them. In order for you to help your child we recommend that you watch the 'Phonemes pronunciation guide DVD' which can be found at www.oup.com/oxed/primary/rwi/transformingprogrammes/.
Why do we use RWI?
The RWI programme has been proven to be a very successful method of teaching every child to read and write using phonics. Over the last two years we have seen a significant improvement in phonics screening at Year 1 using the RWI programme alongside one to one intervention also an improvement at the end of KS1 in reading and writing.
When using RWI to read the children will:
- learn that sounds are represented by written letters
- learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
- learn how to blend sounds
- learn to read words using Fred Talk
- Read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out
- show that they comprehend the stories by answering questions
When using RWI to write the children will:
- learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent 44 sounds
- learn to write words by saying the sounds in Fred Talk
- write simple sentences
Who will be following the programme?
All children in the school have been assessed and have been put into groups best suited for their learning. The programme is mainly for children in Key Stage 1, however there will be some children in Key Stage 2 still following it.
How often will my child read with a teacher?
Children will read their RWI books every morning with a trained member of staff (Eg. the class teacher, teaching assistant, or other support staff). These books will be kept in school. Your child will still bring home a reading book and it is still important that you listen to your child read every day.
Where can I find out more about RWI?
The official Read Write Inc website, www.oup.com/oxed/primary/rwi/ provides all the information you need to support your child through the programme.
The aim is for children to have completed the RWI programme by the end of autumn term in Year 2.
Spelling and reading after RWI:
Once children have completed the RWI phonic programme, they are still encouraged to use the sounds they have learnt to spell and read words. They will also have learnt how to spell and read tricky words during the phonic programme, which are words that we have to learn to read and spell by sight as they cannot be sounded out. They will continue to learn more of these as they progress through school.
In school we also follow the Read, Write, Inc spelling programme where children learn further spelling patterns and rules from Year 2 until Year 6. The children are encouraged to remember and use this knowledge when spelling words in their writing. For further information on reading, read this section on the website.
Read, Write Inc sound mat and letter formation