Phonics
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 can achieve this together through:
- Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school
- Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily at school
- Giving children access to a wide range of books at school
- Promoting reading for pleasure by encouraging them to take library books home
At Ellenborough Academy we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their Literacy development. Mrs Dover and Mrs Anderson are our Read Write Inc leaders.
What is Read Write Inc?
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy 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. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7, however at Ellenborough Academy we begin the programme when children are ready as we use a stage, not age approach. Before this they access early phonics through activities which develop speaking and listening and phonological awareness. RWI has been developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found here.
How will RWI be taught?
All children are assessed half termly by our RWI leads. From these assessments children are grouped into stages, where they work with peers on the same stage. The stages begin with learning single sounds, moving onto words which contain these sounds, and then sentences. . The words increase in complexity with mutli-syllabic words being taught. When the children move onto storybooks, they are introduced to red words, which are common exception words and are not phonetically decodable
Nursery
When appropriate, children will be introduced to the initial sounds using pictures in short five minutes sessions. Following this they are introduced to the letter representations. They build on this by looking at how sounds can be combined to create words through fun interactive activities.
Reception and KS1
Children learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. They are introduced to 'special friends' where a sound is represented by more than one letter. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last 45 minutes and consists of a speed sound lesson to teach a new sound and consolidate previously taught sounds, and then a storybook lesson. This allows children to apply their knowledge in reading a phonetically decodable book which is at their level.
Reading
The children:
- Learn sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
- Learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
- Read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
- Develop comprehension skills in stories by answering literal and inferential questions
Writing
The children:
- Learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of phrases
- Learn to write words by segmenting words into sounds
- Learn to compose and orally practice sentences before they write
​Speaking and listening
The children work in pairs so that they:
- Practise reading with their partner
- Take turns in talking
- Discuss their ideas and answers to questions
Once children become fluent speedy readers they will move on to Accelerated Reader programme.
