Phonics

Phonics Curriculum Intent

At Hamford, we support children in developing and applying phonetic knowledge through decoding, segmenting and blending. Through consistent teaching and regular assessment, we support children to be challenged appropriately and become resilient individuals who are able to think positively about their developing abilities and feel confident to use their phonics skills across the curriculum. 

Our Curriculum

We place significant emphasis on the importance of children acquiring the skills to develop a love of reading from an early age.

At Hamford, we follow the Read, Write Inc. (RWI) phonics programme. The below handbook aims to provide all the necessary information about RWI phonics to parents and carers, including how we teach your children phonics at school and how you are able to support your child at home. 

We also run various Parent Workshops to help you to better understand the RWI programme and the books, videos and resources that will be shared with you at home. A copy of the slides from the 'Introduction to RWI' workshop and this year's 'RWI workshop for parents/carers in Early Years' are below. If you have any questions at all, please speak to your child's class teacher.

Phonics Sessions

In Early Years and Key Stage One, pupils have phonics sessions every day. The session takes place at the beginning of the day to allow children to apply their new knowldege and skills whilst reading and writing during the day. As well as these daily sessions, 1:1 tutoring will be given to children identified as needing more support to keep up with the teaching and make the best possible progress. 

Fresh Start

Identified children in KS2 will receive RWI 'Fresh Start' sessions. This is a learn to read programme that will teach the children to read quickly. It is a fast-paced, systematic programme. 

Ongoing assessment

All children in the school who are being taught phonics are assessed every half term. As a result of these assessments, phonics groups / 1:1 tutoring sessions are adapted accordingly and extra support or challenge is given to individuals. Because of these half termly assessments, and the ongoing informal assessments by teachers every day, pupils who are not making the expected progress are identified early and given the extra support needed to help them to keep up with their peers. 

Supporting children's phonics development at home

• Parents and carers are asked to read with their children at home at least five times a week

• Parents workshops are held and resources are added to the school website 

• In addition to their levelled reading book, all children also take a book home to read  for pleasure that they have individually selected from the classroom book area

• You can access the RWI resources for parents and carers at https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/parents-copy-2/