“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass

Phonics learning starts in Nursery, with a strong focus on developing phonological awareness, communication, and language. Focusing on these areas gives children time to develop the listening skills they need to tune into sounds as they access more formal Phonics teaching through the Read Write Inc Phonics scheme, from Reception year.
 
RWI Phonics is in line with the Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) teaching principles described in the ‘English programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2 – National curriculum in England’ (2014).
 
The RWI Phonics Programme supports children in learning how to read, spell and write in English, as well as supporting children who are learning to speak the English language as a new language.
 
The RWI Phonics programme teaches the letter/s-sound correspondences of the English alphabetic code explicitly and comprehensively for reading, spelling, and handwriting
 
The programme:
  • is systematic and structured, with inbuilt revision to ensure the success of every child.
  • has a rigorous teaching sequence, ensuring the phonics teaching & learning is straightforward, effective, and allows for differentiation in simple, but effective, ways.
  • builds up knowledge of spelling word banks over time where words are spelt with the same letter/s-sound correspondences.
  • is designed to inform parents/carers routinely and to work in partnership with them wherever possible.
  • has an order of introducing the 44 sounds of the English language, which matches the order in ‘Letters and Sounds’ (DfES, 2007).
RWI Phonics lessons develop children’s reading fluency and language comprehension skills until they are ready to access whole class guided reading, usually at the end of Year 2.
 
 
Phonics Screening Check

Towards the end of Year 1, all children will sit a Phonics Screening Check. This is to check whether your child has made the expected progress in Phonics.

Your child will sit with a teacher he or she knows and be asked to read 40 words aloud. Your child may have read some of the words before, while others will be completely new. The check normally takes just a few minutes to complete and there is no time limit, if your child is struggling, the teacher will stop the check. The check is carefully designed not to be stressful for your child.

The check will contain a mix of real words and ‘non-words’ (or ‘nonsense words’). Your child will be told before the check that there will be non-words that he or she will not have seen before. Children will be familiar with these because we already use non-words in our Phonics teaching.

After the check, we will tell you about your child’s progress in Phonics and how he or she has done in the screening check. If your child found the check difficult, we will also talk to you about what support we have put in place to help them improve. Children who have not met the expected standard in Year 1, will retake the Phonics Screening Check in Year 2.

 

 

Information taken from the DfE website –

Learning to read through phonics Information for parents

 

Useful Links & Documents

Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
 
Development Matters – Non-statutory curriculum guidance for the early years foundation stage (publishing.service.gov.uk)
 
Research review series: English – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
 
National curriculum in England: English programmes of study – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
 
The reading framework – teaching the foundations of literacy (publishing.service.gov.uk)
 
Mrs Taylor is our Phonics Ambassador. If you would like any information about Phonics in school, please email j.taylor@smat.org.uk.