Fresh Start
At St Vincent’s, we use the Fresh Start programme to complement our successful phonics programme, Read, Write, Inc.
Fresh Start is a rapid ‘learn to read’ programme, designed for children in Year 5/6 who have not yet built up the fluidity of reading in order to successfully comprehend a text suitable for their age group. We use the Fresh Start programme to teach every student to read, so that we can set them up for the best possible future.
Fresh Start is taught in small groups based on their stage of reading.
If your child is taking part in this programme, please watch the video below for more details on what they will be doing in their sessions.
Fresh Start Parent Video.mp4Fresh Start Parent Presentation.pdf(Presentation only)
Phonics
Each Fresh Start session starts with phonics. In English, we have more than 150 ways to represent 44 sounds, using the 26 letters in the alphabet. The children start by learning one way of spelling each sound, then move on to learning alternative spelling patterns for sounds they already know. Once students know the sounds, they will use them to read and write words.
The videos below can help you to understand more about phonics and why we use it to teach children to read.
Fresh Start Modules
Alongside learning the sounds, each group will be reading texts suitable for their reading ability. They will have a text to read, which incorporates the sounds they already know, setting them up to success in their reading. They will read each text three times, helping them to become confident readers.
Here is an example Module, Hay into Gold:
rwi_RFS_Mod04.pdfAnthologies- Home Reading
Anthologies will be sent home for your children to read to you. They will know all of the sounds used in the text because they match the sounds in the modules they are reading in class. One anthology contains ten stories and will last for many weeks.
