At St Breock 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 as reading is the key to many areas of the curriculum.
We can achieve this together through:
At St Breock School we use a carefully tailored programme of synthetic phonics based on the Read Write Inc Phonics scheme (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy.
Miss Barker is our phonics lead teacher and Mrs Arnold is our literacy lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to them. 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.
You will find our whole-school progression map for reading below.
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 St Breock we begin phonics teaching in our nursery (Beacons) and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.
How will RWI be taught?
All children are assessed regularly by their RWI teacher so that they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons.
Beacons
When appropriate, children will be introduced to the initial sounds in short sessions. Most children will be secure with aspects 1-7 of Phase 1 Letters and Sounds by the end of the Summer term, focusing on rhyme, rhythm and alliteration.
FS2
In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.
Reading
The children:
Writing
The children:
Talking
The children:
Year One & Year Two
Children follow the same format as in FS2 but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for thirty minutes. Once children become fluent speedy readers they will move on to Crack It Comprehension and No Nonsense spelling. In addition, pupils learn to read and spell appropriate high-frequency and exception words for their age group.
Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:
Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about
Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.
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.
|
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 |
Please do not use letter names at this early stage.
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.
|
Long vowel sound |
Set 2 Speed Sound cards |
Set 3 Speed Sound cards |
|
|
ay |
ay: may I play |
a-e: make a cake |
ai: snail in the rain |
|
ee |
ee: what can you see |
ea: cup of tea |
e: he me we she be |
|
igh |
igh: fly high |
i-e: nice smile |
|
|
ow |
ow: blow the snow |
o-e: phone home |
ao: goat in a boat |
|
oo |
oo: poo at the zoo |
u-e: huge brute |
ew: chew the stew |
|
oo |
oo: look at a book |
|
|
|
ar |
ar: start the car |
|
|
|
or |
or: shut the door |
aw: yawn at dawn |
|
|
air |
air: that’s not fair |
are: share and care |
|
|
ir |
ir: whirl and twirl |
ur: nurse for a purse |
er: a better letter |
|
ou |
ou: shout it out |
ow: brown cow |
|
|
oy |
oy: toy for a boy |
oi: spoil the boy |
|
|
ire |
|
ire: fire fire! |
|
|
ear |
|
ear: hear with your ear |
|
|
ure |
|
ure: sure it’s pure? |
|
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. 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. This is for you to enjoy reading together and to practise skills such as sight recognition of words and recognising repetition of words, as well as practising the sounds that they will have already learnt.
During the RWI session children will read their 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.
Spelling Quiz/Challenge
A spelling quiz will be held each week (this will only start in Year One when children are ready). Children will use first use ‘Fred fingers’ to sound out a word before they write it down. Children learn how to spell rather than just get tested. Furthermore, this way of teaching spellings allows children to use Fred fingers whenever they get stuck with spelling a word. Children pinch each sound on fingers before writing the word.
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.
|
Books |
Year Group Expectations |
Green Words in Books |
|
Red Ditty 1-10 |
Reception |
|
|
Green 1-10 |
Reception |
|
|
Purple 1-10 |
Reception/Year One |
|
|
Pink 1-10 |
Reception/Year One |
|
|
Orange 1-12 |
Year One |
|
|
Yellow 1-10 |
Year One |
|
|
Blue 1-10 |
Year One |
|
|
Grey 1-13 |
Year One/Year Two |
To help at home:
Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Please help them to read and give lots of praise! Please refer to our Leanring to Read Together Guides for each year group to support you with this.
If you have any other questions about RWI, please see your class teacher, Miss Barker or Mrs Arnold.
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. Children will be expected to read 40 simple, decodable words including nonsense words. The results will be reported to parents.
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 so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.
Intervention
Through careful monitoring and tracking, teachers are able to identify children who are not making the expected progress and therefore need intervention to catch up. Depending on the needs of individuals, this may include additional individual or small group tuition before the lesson or after the main lesson; one to one work with a trained practitioner or extra support for a child or small group of children within a lesson. It is important that children who are struggling to learn to read not only need to catch up with their peers, but also to continue to make progress.
Phonics in KS2
If children in Key Stage 2 experience difficulty in reading and/or writing because they have missed or misunderstood a crucial phase of systematic phonics teaching, additional resources and/or intervention will be tailored to meet their needs as a priority.
Children from Year 2 and onwards follow No Nonsense Spelling, a scheme which builds in taught spelling strategies to help children embed their knowledge of spelling.
Each session gives an opportunity for children to revisit their previous experience, be taught new skills, practise together and apply what they have learned. Children are expected to read regularly at home as well as in school, and progress through coloured book bands as directed by their teacher, ranging from pink (FS2) up to dark red (approximately Y4), before advancing into our well-stocked library.
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.
Ruth Miskin – guidance and support for parents
http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - many games to play
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ - fun games for the children to play
http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html - fun games for the children to play
http://www.starfall.com/ - fun online books and games for the children to play
http://www.firstschoolyears.com/ - fun games for the children to play
http://www.twinkl.co.uk - lots of resources to print off and help you support your child at home
BBC Bitesize - many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum
Oxford Owl – guides and resources for parents