Phonics

Intent

At Charles Warren Academy, we value reading as a key life skill and one that lays the foundations for lifelong learning. We want every child to learn to decode quickly and accurately so that reading becomes effortless. This enables children to develop their comprehension so that they can then read for pleasure.

At Charles Warren we use The Read, Write Inc. programme which is a systematic, synthetic phonics programme that explicitly teaches children to read fluently and accurately. Read, Write, Inc phonics provides the foundations of learning to make the development into fluent reading and writing easier. Children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. Through RWI phonics children learn a simple alphabetic code followed by a more complex code. All reading books progress cumulatively, matched to the sound’s children are learning and already know. The teaching of phonics is of high priority.

Implementation

All of the staff at Charles Warren Academy have been trained to deliver the Read, Write Inc phonics programme regardless of Key Stage or role in school. Children start RWInc phonics lesson from the first week they start in EYFS, and have daily lessons across EYFS - year 2. In each lesson the children learn a new sound and read corresponding words. The children also revisit previously taught sounds and words and spell words with these sounds. When the children can blend independently they also read a storybook that is matched specifically to the sounds that they have learnt.

We assess children every half term to identify their “Goldilocks spot” (not too easy, not too hard) and place them into appropriate phonics groups with other children at a similar challenge level. Our school is committed to ensuring every pupil will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities.

The lowest 20% of children are identified from our rigorous assessments and targeted for daily one-to-one tuition to help them “keep up, not catch up”. The Read, Write Inc reading books that the children access at school and those that they take home are matched to the children’s phonic knowledge and so are fully decodable.

Impact

At Charles Warren Academy, we have clear expectations of pupils’ phonics progress which is outlined in the following table.

How do we teach phonics?

At Charles Warren Academy 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 achieve this through:

· Read Write Inc, a program to teach phonics skills

· Teaching reading skills through Ark Mastery with a focus on vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

· 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

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a systematic phonics 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. We begin the programme in Reception and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond Key Stage 1 if they still need support in their reading.

How will RWI be taught?

All children are assessed regularly by the RWI lead so they work with children at the same level and lessons are pitched exactly to individual children’s needs. All children in Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 have a daily 30min phonics lesson.

During each lesson children are taught 3 main skills:

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. We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so words children can 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.

· read from a range of storybooks 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

Talking

The children 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 learn the sounds in 3 different sets; Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3.

Click here to hear how the sounds are pronounced.

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.

Throughout RWInc chidlren will read red and green words. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable. Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.