Phonics

Drivers

Possibility

You can achieve!

Make a difference

We are all part of our community and valued

Adventure

Experiences help us grow

Phonics

Every child can read.

Reading is the catalyst to all other learning

Exposure to good quality texts

Story time each day

Sharing books at home and school

Helping each other to learn to read.

Reading corners to excite the learner

Author visits

World Book Day

Library tours

Library membership

How do we teach? 

At Southgate Primary School we follow the Read Write Inc. phonics programme. This is a 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. It integrates phonics with comprehension, writing, grammar, spelling and handwriting, using engaging partner work.

Children are taught by Teachers and Teaching Assistants who are trained to teach the programme. Each lesson consists of a speed sound lesson, spellings, reading and writing.. As children progress, they move on to vocabulary, grammar and

comprehension-based tasks in each lesson.

We start by teaching children to read and blend the first thirty Set 1 sounds. Once they have conquered this skill, they start reading stories and texts that have words made up of the sounds they know. This means that they can embed and apply their phonic knowledge and start to build their reading fluency. Once secure, children learn Set 2 and Set 3 sounds and then read texts with increasingly more complex sounds and graphemes. Throughout this process, there is a focus on comprehension, reading with expression and reading for enjoyment.

Children are taught in groups of 4-30 which reflect their phonic knowledge and reading fluency.

Children are assessed regularly to ensure that they progressing and moving on.

Alongside the RWI reading books used in lessons, we also send home the RWI phonics book bag books, meaning children bring home two books per cycle. These correlate with the group that the children are in, allowing the children to practise reading a phonetically matched book at home and extending that learning by reading the corresponding sequel book also. Children are also sent home with phonics sound books for home learning.

Why do we teach in this way? 

Read Write Inc. is a consistent and systematic teaching approach that has been designed to meet the key literacy aims of the National Curriculum. The grouping method of RWI enables us to teach specifically to each child’s needs and the flexibility of regular assessment ensures that each child is learning at the speed appropriate for them.

Staff are kept up to date with weekly training sessions delivered by the Reading Leader and we receive regular development days from our RWI Trainer ensuring consistent quality teaching.

The RWI phonics programme gives our Foundation Stage children the best possible start in their literacy learning journey and prepares our Year 1 children for the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. In Year 2, the programme continues to build on the fluency and

comprehension skills learnt in Year 1. Our aim is for children to finish the RWI programme at the end of Year 1/beginning of Year 2, with children becoming confident fluent readers who enjoy a wide variety of texts.

How is this adapted for vulnerable learners and high attainers?

Children are assessed by the Reading Leader at least every half term. They can be reassessed at any point. The Reading Leader attends each phonics group throughout the week to check on individual as well as group progress. Any child that is considered to be a vulnerable learner will be assigned to our RWI Teaching Assistant who is dedicated to providing high quality 1:1 interventions every day for all vulnerable learners. In addition, teachers will also provide extra classroom-based interventions for the most vulnerable learners.

The children are grouped according to need and all teachers of RWI are able to identify both vulnerable and  high attainers. The Reading Leader can move the children to a higher-level group as and when is necessary, allowing them to be appropriately challenged. High attainers are also able to take extra reading books home as their fluency develops, as well as being challenged in focused literacy lessons.

For those who complete RWInc programme in Year 2 move the CUSP.reading programme. 

Those children who need further support in KS2 will continue with RWInc in Years 3 and 4, and will begin Fresh Start in Years 5 and 6.