At Swinefleet Primary we want children to become confident, fluent readers who are also passionate about reading.

The first step on this path is Phonics. 

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

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

At Swinefleet Primary School, we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.

Mrs Hall is our Phonics co-ordinator, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in reading.

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps  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. However, we begin the programme in Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading. There are lots of resources to support you here: <https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/> 

How is RWI  taught?

All children are assessed regularly by our Phonics lead 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 daily sessions.

Reception and Year One

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

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

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

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

 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 following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_Q>

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.

<https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/#lg=1&slide=2> Click on this link to hear how to pronounce sounds correctly.

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. Click here for further information on the Screening check.

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. 

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.

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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. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.

Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.

Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar. Children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to show off their creativity and to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Order of Story books: 

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. 

To help at home:

When your child brings home reading books, please help them to read and give lots of praise!

If you have any other questions about Phonics please see Mrs Hall.

Phonics Screening Check Year One

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 the 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 in Year Two.