At St John’s we aim for all pupils to become successful, confident readers who develop a lifelong love of books and learning.
Intent
At St John’s, we use the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics programme to ensure that every child becomes a confident, fluent, and enthusiastic reader. Our intent is to provide a systematic and consistent approach to the teaching of phonics that gives all children the best possible start in their reading journey.
We aim to:
Implementation
We implement our phonics programme through daily phonics lessons taught to ability-based groups. Children begin RWI as soon as they start in Reception, learning to recognise and blend the 44 sounds of the English language. Pupils are regularly assessed and regrouped every six to eight weeks to ensure rapid progress and targeted support.
All staff involved in delivering RWI receive regular, high-quality training and coaching to ensure consistency, fidelity to the programme, and strong subject knowledge across the school.
Key elements of our RWI implementation include:
Before you start to teach your child, practice saying the sounds below. These are the sounds we use to speak in English. Children initially begin using pictures for each sound, this will help children recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.
We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! we call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred.
Step 1:
Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
Set 1 | |
Sound | Rhyme |
m | Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain. |
a | Round the apple, down the leaf. |
s | Slide around the snake |
d | Round the dinosaur’s back, up his neck and down to his feet. |
t | Down the tower, across the tower, |
i | Down the insects body, dot for the head. |
n | Down Nobby and over the net. |
p | Down the plait, up and over the pirates face. |
g | Round the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl |
o | All around the orange |
c | Curl around the caterpillar |
k | Down the kangaroos body, tail and leg |
u | Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle |
b | Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel |
f | Down the stem and draw the leaves |
e | Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg |
l | Down the long leg |
h | Down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back |
sh | Slither down the snake, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back |
r | Down the robot’s back, then up and curl |
j | Down his body, curl and dot |
v | Down a wing, up a wing |
y | Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak’s head. |
w | Down, up, down, up the worm. |
th | Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back |
z | Zig-zag-zig, down the zip. |
ch | Curl around the caterpillar, , then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back |
qu | Round the queen’s head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl |
x | Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way |
ng | A thing on a string |
nk | I think I stink |
At this stage we do not use the letter names.
Step 2:
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
Long vowel sound | Set 2 Speed Sound cards
Teach these first |
Set 3 Speed Sound cards | |
ay | ay: may I play | a-e: make a cake | ai: snail in the rain |
ee | ee: what can you see | ea: cup of tea | e: he me we she be |
igh | igh: fly high | i-e: nice smile | |
ow | ow: blow the snow | o-e: phone home | ao: goat in a boat |
oo | oo: poo at the zoo | u-e: huge brute | ew: chew the stew |
oo | oo: look at a book | ||
ar | ar: start the car | ||
or | or: shut the door | aw: yawn at dawn | |
air | air: that’s not fair | are: share and care | |
ir | ir: whirl and twirl | ur: nurse for a purse | er: a better letter |
ou | ou: shout it out | ow: brown cow | |
oy | oy: toy for a boy | oi: spoil the boy | |
ire | ire: fire fire! | ||
ear | ear: hear with your ear | ||
ure | ure: sure it’s pure? |
Nonsense words (Alien words)- What ‘a load’ or nonsense!
As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term. These words provide endless opportunities for children to apply and practice their thinking in a range of different contexts.
Step 3:
Cchildren will be exposed to red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable. Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.
Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers, relating to their reading stage. You will find they will bring home a phonics based book, this will aid application, speed and fluency- developing speedy reading! Following on from this, they will bring a comprehension based book which will begin to enrich their reading, which will require decoding skills. Only then, children will bring home enriched reading books which will enhance their understanding via inspirational language promoting depth to their understanding.
Useful websites for Parents
Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/ – information and resources to support phonics learning at home
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ – fun games for the children to play
http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html – fun games for the children to play
http://www.firstschoolyears.com/ – fun games for the children to play
BBC Bitesize – many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum
Impact
As a result of our systematic approach:
Regular assessments ensure that no child is left behind, and support is swiftly put in place for those who need it. Children are grouped according to their progress, allowing every child to be taught at the right level and pace for their learning.
Pupil voice, reading records, and phonics screening outcomes show that our approach is both effective and enjoyable. By the end of Key Stage 1, children have developed strong foundations in reading and writing, equipping them with the skills and confidence needed for future learning.