Phonics
Research shows that children who learn to read quickly go on to succeed in school and in life. At Wybers Wood academy we strongly believe that reading underpins everything we do and that all children should be equipped skills and opportunities to become a successful reader. Once a child can read they can do anything. We strive to create a passion for reading within our school and this starts from the very beginning in Phonics.
What is Phonics?
All words are made up of individual sounds. These sounds are merged together to form words. e.g. in ‘mat’ we have the sounds ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘t’, ship – ‘sh’, ‘i’, ‘p’. A grapheme is another name for the letters we use to write the sound. The spelling of that sound on the page. Phonics is the method of teaching reading through the identification of sounds and graphemes.
In the English language we have
- 44 sounds
- 26 letters
- Over 150+ graphemes (letter combinations)
Which makes it one of the most complex alphabetic codes in the world. Using RWI, we make learning to read easy for children because we start by teaching them just one way of reading and writing every sound using a simple Speed Sound Chart. Children use these sounds to blend into words, segment to spell words and then read and write. As children develop their phonics skills we introduce more ways of writing the same sounds (these are in our Complex Speed Sound Chart).
Our core principles of Phonics teaching are:
That it is part of a broad and rich curriculum that engages children in a range of activities and experiences to develop their speaking and listening skills and phonological awareness
- That it is time-limited- we aim that our pupils are confident readers, reading with a good degree of fluency by a minimum of the end of Key Stage 1
- That it is systematic- it follows a carefully planned program reinforcing and building on previous learning to secure children’s progress.
- That there are ample opportunities to reinforce and apply acquired phonic knowledge and skills across the curriculum.
- That those pupils who are struggling to keep up with the pace in the daily phonics session, receive swift support to allow them to get back on track. We are a ‘keep up’ not ‘catch up’ academy.
- That Phonics is approached by all staff in a positive way – creating and excitement for Phonics and reading.
At Wybers Wood Academy phonics is taught in accordance with the Read Write Inc Program which is for children in Reception, Y1 and Y2 who are learning to read. Phonics is also for children in Y3 and Y4 who haven’t met the KS1 reading expectations and need more support with reading.
In Read Write Inc. Phonics pupils:
• Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
• Read common exception words on sight
• Understand what they read
• Read aloud with fluency and expression
• Write confidently, with a strong focus on vocabulary and grammar
• Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
• Acquire good handwriting.
Our RWI Program begins in Reception where pupils learn to read and write effectively and quickly. Children are introduced to set 1 sounds and oral blending immediately. We give children a hook to learn the sounds by using pictures in the same shape as the letter eg. ‘s’ looks like a snake, ‘d’ looks like a dinosaur.
These are displayed on Sound Mats and can be found in the Related Documents at the bottom of the page. We teach the children to name the mnemonic pictures before they learn the sound. We also use a handwriting rhyme to help children recall how to write each sound. This means that children learn to read and write the sounds really easily. In reception there is a big focus on Fred talk. Fred can only speak in sounds. He says d-o-g, h-a-t etc. Speaking like Fred helps children to understand that words are made up of sounds. Fred helps children practise blending sounds together because he needs the children to say the words for him. Fred says d-o-g, children tell him the word is dog. This is how we quickly teach all of our children to blend. Once children start to blend words orally, and then blend to read words they will bring a sound blending book home to practice this skill using Fred talk.
All phonics sessions occur daily. In Early Years this starts as 15 minutes building up to 45 minutes as the year progresses. RWI is taught for an hour in KS1. We group pupils homogeneously, according to children’s progress in reading rather than their writing. This is because it is known that pupils’ progress in writing will lag behind progress in reading, especially for those whose motor skills are less well developed. We have an ‘stage not age’ approach to grouping and will group children according to their individual needs.
For those pupils moving into KS2 who are still not secure in terms of their phonics knowledge and/ or blending, the RWI program continues at the children’s current RWI level and additional intervention is put into place to ensure that they catch up quickly. The children accessing additional interventions will be assessed half-termly using RWI assessments and phonic screening tests to measure impact and identify gaps in phonic knowledge to then inform future intervention.
Program of teaching RWI
Teachers follow clearly planned and structured lessons as part of the RWI program. In addition:
- Phonics activities are available throughout the continuous provision to ensure reconsolidation of adult led activities.
- Pupils have access to fully decodable texts, which match their phonic knowledge – RWI Book Bag Books.
- For those pupils who are unable to keep up in class, additional phonics support is offered and this is tailored to a particular child’s/ group’s needs. We believe in a ‘keep up not catch up approach’ and strive to make this happen for all children.
Reading at Home
At Wybers Wood Primary Academy we start children’s reading journey by providing every child that starts in Reception with an amazing book bag package that includes; a book of nursery rhymes, a traditional story and a guide for supporting early phonics and reading at home.
Every week children will be encouraged to select a book to read for pleasure and share with and adult. This is for the purposes of developing their comprehension skills and ensuring children and adults have an enjoyable and rich reading experience together. Many of these books are taken from the ‘Top 30 books’ for each year group and other books they will know and love.
When children are ready and blending words independently, they will start to bring home decodable RWI books matched to their current reading level. We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the common exception words. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their increasingly fluent decoding.
In your child’s book bag, they will bring home:
– the paper copy of the Storybook they have read in class to practise reading what they can already read.
– A ‘Last and past’ Storybook – a previously read RWI Storybooks for extra practice. The children enjoy re-reading stories they know well. Their fluency improves on every reading.
– a Book Bag Book linked to their current story. They have guidance inside just for you as parents., They are matched to the books children read in school so provide practice of the same sounds – extra practice at the right level for your child. They include many of the same reading activities that we use in class and may sometimes be a non-fiction book linked to the storybook.
– A picture book to share with you which has already been read to them so they care about it. You can read the story to them or they can retell the story by looking at the pictures. They are not expected to read the story themselves.
Assessment of Phonics:
Our pupils are monitored daily throughout their phonics sessions to ensure that no pupils get left behind. If a child is struggling to embed the current learning, then swift and timely intervention is put into place immediately.
Pupils are assessed half- termly by the Reading Leader using the RWI Individual assessments. The Reading leader then assigns pupils to their RWI group provides support to class teachers in identifying children who will be targeted for specific interventions to allow all children to ‘Keep up’. Interventions will all take the form of RWI 1:1 Tutoring which will be assigned to children depending on their current phonics abilities.
Useful Information & Links
Ten top tips for reading stories to your child
1 – Make reading to your child feel like a treat. Introduce each new book with excitement!
2 – Make it a special quiet time and cuddle up so both of you can see the book.
3 – Show curiosity in what you’re going to read: Oh no! I think Arthur is going to get even angrier now.
4 – Read the whole story the first time through without stopping too much. If you think your child might not understand something, model an explanation: Oh I think what’s happening here is that…
5 – Chat about the story: I wonder why he did that? Oh no, I hope she’s not going to… I wouldn’t have done that, would you?
6 – Avoid asking questions to test what your child remembers.
7 – Link stories to your own experiences (e.g. This reminds me of…)
8 – Read favourite stories over and over again. Get your child to join in with the bits they know.
9 – Read with enthusiasm. Don’t be embarrassed to try out different voices. Your child will love it.
10 – Read with enjoyment. If you’re not enjoying it, your child won’t.
Ruth Miskin Parents’ Page: