All children are assessed regularly by our RWI lead teacher, so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons.

Nursery

When appropriate, children will be introduced to the initial sounds in short five minutes sessions.

Reception

In Reception, all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

KS1

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics may last for one hour. 

KS2

Identified pupils in Year 3 and Year 4 will continue to follow RWI Phonics, working on complex sounds and reading appropriate books. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last between 30 minutes and 1 hour. They continue their journey through Fast Track Tutoring sessions, Fresh Start in Year 5 and Year 6 (where appropriate), Talk for Reading and our Knowledge Rich Curriculum.

Reading

The children:

• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
• 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
• work well with partners
• develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions
• talking

They work 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, practise saying the sounds below. These are the sounds we use to speak in English.

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 Fred Talk to sound out words, for example, 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.

 

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.

Set 1
Sound	Rhyme
m	Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain.
a	Round the apple, down the leaf.
s	Slide around the snake
d	Round the dinosaur's back, up his neck and down to his feet.
t	Down the tower, across the tower,
i	Down the insects body, dot for the head.
n	Down Nobby and over the net.
p	Down the plait, up and over the pirates face.
g	Round the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl
o	All around the orange
c	Curl around the caterpillar
k	Down the kangaroos body, tail and leg
u	Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle
b	Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel
f	Down the stem and draw the leaves
e	Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg
l	Down the long leg
h	Down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back
sh	Slither down the snake, then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back
r	Down the robot's back, then up and curl
j	Down his body, curl and dot
v	Down a wing, up a wing
y	Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak's head.
w	Down, up, down, up the worm.
th	Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
z	Zig-zag-zig, down the zip.
ch	Curl around the caterpillar, , then down the horse's head to the hooves and over his back
qu	Round the queen’s head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl
x	Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way
ng	A thing on a string
nk	I think I stink

Step 2:

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

 

Children will hopefully follow the order listed below. The expectation is that all children will leave Year One as confident, speedy readers, ready to take on the challenges of Year Two. However, some children may need extra support and your teacher will talk to you about this.

Books

Books	Year Group Expectations	Green Words
Red Ditty 1-10	Reception	Please click here to view
Green 1-10	Reception	Please click here to view
Purple 1-10	Reception	Please click here to view
Pink 1-10	Year One/Reception	Please click here to view
Orange 1-12	Year One	Please click here to view
Yellow 1-10	Year One	Please click here to view
Blue 1-10	Year One	Please click here to view
Grey 1-13	Year One	Please click here to view

 

What is Fresh Start?   

Read Write Inc Fresh Start is a systematic synthetic phonics programme for struggling readers in Year 5 and Year 6. Pupils are taught at their challenge point, so they can learn to read accurately and fluently.

Every day, pupils learn new letter-sounds and review previous sounds and words. They apply what they’ve been taught by reading words containing the sounds they know in lively, age-appropriate stories and non-fiction texts closely matched to their phonic knowledge. Pupils are taught either individually or in a small progress group for 25 minutes each day.

Our reading leader coordinates the teaching, organises practice sessions for teachers and support staff and assesses pupils’ phonic progress.

 

What is the Year 1 phonics screening check?

The Year 1 phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.

It will identify children who need extra help, so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.

For further information on Phonics and the Year One Screening Check please click on the link below to view the Dept of Education Parent Information Leaflet:

Dept of Education - Learning to Read Through Phonics