In early years, children need a clear, systematic phonics programme to teach them the fundamental skill of decoding words to begin to build their reading fluency.  Due to this, we use Read Write Inc. Phonics' curriculum: a nationally recognised programme that provides a solid foundation of key synthetic phonics and language comprehension skills that underpins all further reading. 

Phonics is taught daily by our teachers, who have been trained in the Read Write Inc. (RWI) programme.  Lessons include a range of oral, visual and written activities to ensure children are able to practise the skills learned in a variety of ways so that they make rapid progress. The RWI books are matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics so that they experience success and gain confidence as a reader. 

The individual child's journey through the phonics curriculum depends on their personal entry point and is tracked against age-related standards.  Children are then assessed every term and are grouped homogeneously across their year group, according to their progress in reading.

Understanding Phonics

Our aim is for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.  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 programme to help to your child read at school
• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
• Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a phonics 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. 

Parent video: What is Read Write Inc Phonics

How will my child be taught to read?

We start by teaching phonics to the children in Primary 1. Children rapidly learn sounds (phonemes) and their corresponding letter, or groups of letters (graphemes) they need to represent them.  This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.

Reading

The children:

• Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts (see below)
• 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
• Work well with partners
• Develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions.

Writing

The children:

• Learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
• Learn to write words by using Fred Talk
• Learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write.

Talking

The children work in pairs so that they:

• Answer every question
• Practise every activity with their partner
• Take turns in talking and reading to each other
• Develop ambitious vocabulary.

Progressing through the stages

Children in Primary 1 are introduced to initial sounds from August. Children then begin to learn how to 'read' the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

Following initial sounds, children move onto 'special friends', which is when two or more letters are used to make one sound (e.g., sh, ch, th).

As children progress, they follow the same format but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last 30-60 minutes, dependent on year group. Once children become fluent, speedy readers they will move on to the RWI Spelling programme.

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about

Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning

Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability

Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning

Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally

Children will be taught how to read as follows:

Fred Talk

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:

RWI Set 1, 2 and 3

The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.

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.

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. RWI refer to sounds made with two or more letters as 'special friends'. The split diagraphs are still referred to as 'special friends' but they are 'chatty' so can't sit beside each other!

How to say the sounds

Use the link below to support your pronunciation of sounds correctly.

Step 3:

Within all the RWI sessions/books children 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.

During the RWI session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may hear your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.

Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.

Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to show the meaning of a word. 

Edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar.

RWI Reading Books

In Primary 1 - 3, our reading scheme is Read Write Inc. until they have completed the RWI phonics programme.  Every week, they will bring home a RWI phonics-based book and this will aid application, speed and fluency - developing speedy reading. Children will read and be taught using the storybooks in class as part of their phonics lessons first, before bringing it home.  The phonics teacher will set the weekly homework.  This may include practise of speed sounds, green words, red words, re-reading the class's weekly RWI book, a RWI non-fiction or Book Bag Book at their level.

Children will begin to bring red ditty books home once they can read all Set 1 speed sounds speedily and have had plenty of practice blending sounds together. This will be around December in Primary 1, however, this does vary for each child and every child will continue to be taught and supported at their level to ensure they progress through RWI. 

Children may be given a username and password to access RWI e-books online: Login (oxfordowl.co.uk). This is an exact replica of the RWI storybooks and includes an electronic quiz and the opportunity for children to give an opinion of how they found the book. 

Parent video: Sound blending

Parent video: Reading the digraphs with your child

Red Words 

Alongside 'Green' (decodable) Words, children will learn 'Red Words' as they progress through the RWI books. Red Words are words children will be unable to decode using their current sound knowledge, however, they are frequently used words.  The children are introduced to these words in class, and are taught to read them 'at a glance' without using Fred Talk. Below are two resources - a PPT and a pdf - that show the RWI Red Words and when they are introduced through the programme.  These could be used to support your child at home. 

Spelling with Fred Fingers