At St Faith's, we have chosen the 'Read Write Inc' systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) programme to teach early reading and spelling. This is a DfE validated phonics programme.

At St Faith’s CofE School, we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading. This is why we teach reading through Read Write Inc., which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Read Write Inc. progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

Intent

Using RWI, we aim to teach build secure phonetic knowledge, which supports children to read and spell effortlessly so that they can read and write fluently, accurately, and with confidence.

Through Read, Write Inc lessons children will:

• Learn 70+ sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
• Learn to read words using ‘Fred Talk’ (sounding words out) to start, then as they progress without ‘Fred Talk’
• Learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent 70+ sounds.
• Learn to spell words by saying the sounds in ‘Fred Talk’
• Learn to spell and read common exception words
• Read pseudo- words (known as ‘alien words’ ) in preparation for the Year 1 phonics screening test
• Write simple and complex sentences

Implementation: 

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.

The Teaching Sequence

Five RWI lessons are taught daily and each lesson lasts for approximately 30 minutes. RWI lessons start with learning a new sound or reviewing a previously taught sound. Pupils then learn how to apply their grapheme/phoneme knowledge to read real simple words – initially sounding out these words and then progressing onto speedy reading of words as well as reading ‘alien’ words. They also learn how to read irregular words and multisyllabic words.  The final part of the teaching sequence encourages pupils to write confidently, with a focus on spelling quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds taught in words, correct vocabulary and grammar and acquiring good handwriting.

Reception and Key Stage 1 children are integrated for their RWI lessons. This allows children in Reception that are making rapid progress to be taught in homogenous groups. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky words’ so that they experience success and gain confidence in reading. Children are able to see themselves as ‘readers’.

Please read our Phonics policy below to find out more about how phonics is taught at St Faith's.

Helpful Resources for Parents:

Your child will start to bring books home 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! They will also bring home a 'Sharing book' to read together: this will continue to build their love of reading. Please read everyday with your child to support their reading and write in their reading log. 

Please click below for a useful parent guide to Read Write Inc phonics. Please scroll down to view the videos.