Phonics
RWI at Membury Primary Academy
At Membury, 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!
More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.
We can achieve this together through:
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Read Write Inc, a program to help your child read at school
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Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
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Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home
At Membury, we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their Literacy development. Miss Kierstan is our Read Write Inc Lead Teacher, so if you have any questions about RWI, please contact our school who can refer you to her.
What is Read Write Inc?
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy 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. However, at Membury, we will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if required, as we use a stage not age approach.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://youtu.be/sjlPILhk7bQ
How will RWI be taught?
All children are assessed half termly by our RWI lead teacher. From these assessments children are grouped into stages, where they work with peers on the same stage in small groups, each led by a RWI Trained member of staff.
Reception
In Reception, all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.
Reading
The children:
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Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
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Learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
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Read from a range of storybooks and non-fiction books matched to their phonic knowledge
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Work well with partners
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Develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Fastest Finger and ‘Have a Think’ discussion questions
Writing
The children:
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Learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
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Learn to write words by using Fred Talk
Talking
The children:
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They work in pairs so that they:
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Answer every question
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Practise every activity with their partner
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Take turns in talking and reading to each other
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Develop ambitious vocabulary
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Progressing through the stages
Children follow the same format as Early Years but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last 45 minutes.
Children will be taught how to read as follows:
Before you start to teach your child the sounds, we focus on naming the pictures for each single sound. For example, mountain, apple and snake. We then introduce the sound. For example, ‘m’, ‘a’ and ‘s’. These are the sounds we use to speak in English. Children initially begin using pictures and letter formation phrases for each sound; this will help children recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound. For example, ‘m’, ‘mmmmountain’, ‘Maisie Mountain Mountain’.
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. Use the link below to support your pronunciation of the sounds correctly.
Fred Talk
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.
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)- What 'a load' of nonsense!
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.
RWI Parent Video: The Phonics Screening Check: https://youtu.be/LbKGLJPp6ww
Step 3
Within all the RWI Speed Sound sessions and Core Storybook sessions, 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. Story green words are the main words within a specific text and are linked to the sounds that they have been learning. They aim to extend children’s vocabulary. On day one of introducing a new Core Story book, we make sure that children can read each of these Story Green words and ensure that they know what each of these words mean. Speedy Green words are also specific to a particular text, and these words are read using Fred in your Head. The aim is for children to read these words with fluency, at 1 word per second.
Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes. We teach children to read each of these words in a specific way; firstly they look for any Special Friends, e.g. sh, ch or oo, then they Fred Talk, (orally blend), and then they read the word. Eventually they will learn to read words using only ‘Fred in their Head’, (secret Fred Talk)!
Tutoring:
The Read Write Inc. One-to-one Phonics Tutoring offers individual tuition to children who are at risk of falling behind with their reading, or are behind their peers, or are new to a school and need to catch up. RWI has the approach, ‘Keep up not Catch up’. This extra 1:1 tutoring will ensure that these children are caught before they fall behind and that every child will learn to read. These sessions are called ‘speed minutes’ and ‘pinny time’.
Listening to your child read at home:
Every third day, your child will bring home a Core Story Book that they have been focusing on in school over 3 days. This book will be closely matched to the sounds and words they know, so they should be able to read all the words with accuracy after the 1st read. They then re-read this book in school, to develop their fluency and by the 3rd read, you are encouraging your child to read this book with a story teller’s voice.
This is a time for children to read with confidence and to experience success as a reader!
On the 3rd day, your child will also bring home an additional book. This will either be a book bag book, linked closely to the core story book that they are reading, a non-fiction book, or a core story book that they have previously read.
Each week, your child will also bring home a school library book, chosen by them, to share with you at home. This is to help encourage their love of reading.
RWI Parent Video: Why Read to your Child? https://youtu.be/kjHqJQ8sxs4
A large selection of RWI books can also be accessed on https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk . Each child will have their own unique log in to have access.
Useful websites for Parents
Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.
https://youtu.be/i5O4yvZSOsc Ruth Miskin: 10 Top Tips
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents-copy-2/ - Information and resources to support phonics learning at home
http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html - fun games for the children to play
http://www.firstschoolyears.com/ - fun games for the children to play
The national Phonics screening check is performed in June of Year 1. The purpose of the screening check is to confirm that all children have learnt phonic decoding to an age-appropriate standard. The children who did not meet the required standard for the check in Year 1 enter again in Year 2 with additional support. As children enter KS2 provision is made for those children still requiring daily phonics.