At Warbstow we teach a synthetic phonics programme called ‘Read, Write Inc’.
‘Effective teachers are highly trained to instill the principles of phonics, can identify the learning needs of young children, and recognise and overcome the barriers that impede learning.’ HMI Ofsted report on ‘Reading by Six’
This programme has been tried and tested over the years and has been a great success in our school.
All of us will have been in the learn to read phase at some time in our lives. The quicker we learn to read, the quicker we can start to read to learn – this phase lasts for the rest of lives. Read, Write Inc helps support children in being a successful reader at Warbstow School.
Read Write Inc. lasts two years for most children; they begin in the Early Years and continue through to the end of Year 1. There are some children who spend longer on the programme. Trained adults, leading the group, meet weekly to discuss and evaluate individual children’s progress and group the children to meet their learning needs.
How do children learn to read?
Early Years:
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Phonics sessions start from Day 1 of being in school. Children are taught letters sounds in a particular order following Read, Write Inc. (RWInc) our synthetic phonics programme.
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In the first term, children will be taught m,a,s,d,t,i,n,p,g,o,c,k,u,b,f,e through whole class teaching.
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As the children become more familiar with the school routine, children are assessed according to which sounds they know and whether they are able to blend sounds together e.g c a t says cat. Using this information, children are grouped according to what they know to help the children be taught at the correct level in order to support their progress in reading.
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All groups are taken by trained adults who receive support from the Reading Leader’ and the RWInc trainer that visits 3 times per year.
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Once children know the first 16 sounds (m,a,s,d,t,i,n,p,g,o,c,k,u,b,f,e) then they are taught to blend within their speed sound session. The aim is for the children to recognise these sounds speedily.
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Once children know 25 sounds (m,a,s,d,t,i,n,p,g,o,c,k,u,b,f,e,l,h,r,j,v,y,w,z,x) they are taught to use their sound knowledge to decode and blend words together for reading.
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It is at this point that special friends are introduced. ‘Special friends’ are where more than one letter makes one sound. Nonsense words are also introduced to check that the children have developed the decoding and blending words skill.
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Once children are showing they are able to decode and blend, they will receive a phonically decodable sheet or book that match the sounds that they know so that they can read them confidently. Prior to this, children will have been taking home books for pleasure and will continue to do this throughout the year.
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As soon as children are working at the Red level, they will begin to read longer words, including 4 and 5 sound words. Children will be taught to spot special friends such as double consonants (ff, ss, ll,) and sh,th,ch,qu,ng,nk
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At Green and Purple level children will be taught Set 2 sounds (ay, ee, igh, ow, oo, oo, ar, or, air, ir, ou, oy) and read green words containing these sounds, including longer words.
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At Pink level set 2 is revised and when the children are ready they will begin to learn Set 3 sounds- (ea, oi, a-e, i-e, o-e, u-e, aw, are, ur, er, ow, ai, oa, ew, ire, ear, ure).
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From Orange level and above, children will continue to revise all sounds and read words (including longer words) and develop their fluency and reading speed for comprehension.
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At Grey level, children will be building on all of the previous skills and will read unfamiliar multisyllabic words and show intonation when reading.
Year 1 and beyond
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In Year 1, children continue to work through the RWInc scheme. Children are assessed termly (and sooner if they are showing accelerated progress within their sessions.)
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All children in the school who are accessing RWInc as a lesson or as an intervention will take home a fully decodable book. Alongside this they can take home a book for pleasure.
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Year 1 are expected to complete a statutory phonics screening check in June which checks their phonic knowledge and ability to decode and read a range of real and nonsense words. RWInc supports children to be successful in passing their phonics screening check.
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Trained adults teach the RWInc programme and are supported by the Reading Leader in school as well as an external RWInc trainer who visits the school 3 times a year.
Fred (frog) helps children learn to read
Fred can only talk in sounds...
(Fred can only say c_a_t, he can’t say cat)
We call this Fred Talk! We only use pure sounds which help children to blend. The Ruth Miskin website has lots of support to help you to do his at home with your child.
Children will bring home decodable books that match the phonics they know. This will be the RWInc book that they have been using to support their reading in school and the children will keep this for the week as it runs alongside their RWInc lessons. In addition to this, there will be other books from our reading scheme that will be sent home which also contain all of the sounds that they have been taught and these will be changed regularly.
The programme is not just about reading but is linked with writing too. The children learn new sounds within fantastic decodable books and use the sounds learnt to help them with their spellings when writing independent sentences. They are also given the opportunity to edit sentences to make them correct. This gives our children the confidence to read and write with confidence in a fun and exciting way!
