Intent
At St Joseph’s, we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We believe that Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics provides the foundations of learning to make the development into fluent reading and writing easier. Read Write Inc. is a systematic, synthetic phonics program that explicitly teaches children to read fluently and accurately. This method of learning centres around letter sounds and phonics, blending sounds together to read and spell words and applying these skills across the curriculum. Children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. At St Joseph’s, 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 begin to read for pleasure. All reading books progress cumulatively and are matched to the sounds children are learning and already know. Through our inclusive phonics programme, we believe we can teach every child to read and keep them reading for life.
Implementation
- The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1. Phonics is taught daily to all children in EYFS, Year 1 and those in Year 2 who have not passed the phonics screening in Year 1 or completed the Read, Write, Inc (RWI) phonics programme.
- Pupils work in ability groups based on assessments which happen every half term (or every 6 weeks). This determines the level of book the children will be reading and ensures all children are working at their level. Groups are re-organised half termly following assessments.
- Children in the EYFS begin learning their sounds within the first four weeks of entering school using a whole class approach and begin by learning set one sounds:
m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h, sh, r, j, v, y, w, th, z, ch, qu, x, ng, nk.
- They will then move to blending these sounds orally and reading them using a variety of mediums both within their phonics lessons and within the classroom through continuous provision.
- Within each phonics storybook lesson children are taught to:
- Decode letter/sounds correspondences quickly and effortlessly
- Use their phonic knowledge to read red words (words that cannot be sounded out e.g. said or she)
- Understand what they read and be able to answer questions about what they have read.
- Read aloud with expression and fluency
- Spell easily by segmenting sounds in words
- Staff ensure that children read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the ‘red words’. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers.
- Adults read stories to the children every day and a love of reading is promoted consistently throughout the school.
Daily interventions for those children not making expected progress.
Children who are not making the expected progress in phonics are monitored closely and receive daily interventions from our designated one to one tutor. Gaps are identified within these sessions and next steps identified and recorded. These sessions are matched closely to the RWI structure and are tailored to meet each child’s need, including but not exclusive to pre-teaching sounds, words, storybooks or repeating certain elements from the program. These short, sharp sessions take place daily and regular discussions between the reading lead and one to one tutor ensure no child is ever left behind.
- Ruth Miskin School Portal – Parent films and information
