Early Reading and Phonics
The intent behind our Phonics approach is to:
- Nurture happy, confident children who have a love for books and reading at school and at home.
- We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.
- Deliver a high-quality phonics programme so children can consistently use phonics to read and write confidently and fluently by the end of Key Stage 1.
- For children to apply their phonics knowledge during reading and writing sessions and across the curriculum.
- Ensure children’s reading books are tailored to their individual secure phonics knowledge, ensuring they are fully decodable.
- Encourage learners to be independent, resilient and have a stamina for reading.
Read, Write, Inc. Phonics and Reading
Throughout EYFS and KS1 we follow the Read, Write, Inc. programme where the children have daily, high energy, face-paced sessions providing an engaging and rigorous, systematic approach to the teaching of phonics and reading. Simple mnemonics help children to grasp the sounds quickly and sounds are taught at a pace of one a day, with sufficient time to practise, consolidate and apply.
Regular assessments enable leaders to closely monitor phonics progress and group children flexibly to meet their individual needs. This fluid approach to assessment and grouping ensures that lessons are closely matched to ability, so pupils will always be challenged appropriately.
Read, Write, Inc. teaches children to:
- Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
- Read common exception words on sight
- Understand what they read
- Read aloud with fluency and expression
- Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
- Acquire good handwriting.
- To work effectively with a partner to explain and consolidate what they are learning.
This partner talk provides the teacher with opportunities to assess learning and to pick up on difficulties, such as pupils’ poor articulation, or problems with blending or alphabetic code knowledge.
The clarity of the scheme allows teachers and support staff to deliver consistently strong phonics and reading teaching, ensuring that children experience success from the very beginning, with Reception following the ‘Stronger Start’ approach from their first day at school.
Lively books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and common exception words so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher, supports their increasingly fluent decoding.
Additional RWI sessions:
Fred Talk
Children in EYFS and any children not yet blending engage in daily Fred Talk games, where the adult orally segments words for the child to orally blend. These words are chosen according to their ability and are used to link to day-to-day tasks. E.g. s-i-t down please / put on your c-oa-t etc. Have a go at home...
https://schools.ruthmiskin.com/training/view/CFsxTSyc/MzLOxRaO
Afternoon Speed Sound Lessons
Assessments allow us to identify children who may need additional speed sound lessons in an afternoon to support their progress.
Pinny-time
Pinny time helps all children practise reading sounds taught so far speedily. Staff wear these in classrooms and can produce sounds from their pinnies at discreet times during the day to support children to remember the sounds they have leaned.
Catch-up Tutoring
Our least confident readers, throughout the school, each have an individual progress record and receive regular additional 1:1 tutoring support. Read, Write, Inc. We have an expert member of staff who delivers this tutoring across both skey stages.
RWI Virtual Classroom
Parents have access to the online Ruth Miskin Portal, where supporting RWI videos are uploaded weekly by teachers onto class dojo. These videos are selected to support childrens progress in blending and sound recognition.
The impact of our consistent and systematic teaching of our phonics programme is that children become fluent readers by the end of KS1.
The children in Key Stage 1 will follow our ‘Reading Karate’ scheme. The scheme works as follows:
- Parents record what their child has read in their reading diary which will then be checked at school and counted.
- Your child should be reading a minimum of 4 pages to count as one read
- Only one read will be counted per day
- Parents MUST sign each read in the reading diary for it to be counted as a read
When your child has achieved 15 reads they will need to show their reading diary to the class teacher/teaching assistant. When they have read a further 15 times they will need to show their reading diary to the class teacher/teaching assistant again. The white wristband will need to be brought back to school so that it can be swapped for a yellow one. This will continue until your child achieves their accomplished black wristband, which they are allowed to keep. They will then work towards achieving Shodan Eagle, Nidan Tiger and Sandan Dragon awards – the mark of a true Reading Karate Master!
Reading for Pleasure
- We read to children every day in Whole Class Reading. We choose these books carefully from our class treasury chest as we want children to experience a wide range of books, including books that promote mental health and well-being, our local community and other worlds and cultures. These books are specifically chosen for this purpose.
- Every classroom has an inviting book corner that encourages a love for reading. These include a range of fiction and non-fiction texts that relate to our project work and interests
- Pupils have the opportunity to visit the local library as well as our school library. The school library is open for families to access each Monday after school.