Phonics at 

 St Robert Bellarmine

“We are God’s work of art”

At St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Primary School we aim to develop the full potential of all our pupils as confident, literate readers and writers. If children are to develop as competent readers and writers, it is vitally important that they have a secure understanding of the letter sounds and spelling system of the English language. Phonic skills need to be developed in a systematic way, based on a stage approach. To enable this to take place we use Read Write Inc. phonics. This programme teaches children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. 

Read Write Inc., developed by Ruth Miskin, provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. It is used by more than a quarter of the UK's primary schools and is designed to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers.

Each Read Write Inc. programme meets the higher expectations of the curriculum and uses effective assessment to accelerate every child's progress.

Through Read Write Inc. children learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes.

They experience success from the very beginning. Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.

Children are also given prompts for thinking out loud and discussion.

The principles of the Read, Write, Inc programme

At our school we follow this programme from Foundation Stage, through KS1 and into KS2 if appropriate. The programme focuses on securing word recognition skills, essential for children to decode (read) and encode (spell) words accurately and language comprehension.

The programme is carefully structured into developmental phases. The sessions are delivered to ensure participation and engagement resulting in high- quality phonic work on a daily basis to help practitioners and teachers ensure that by the end of Key Stage 1 children develop fluent word reading skills and good foundations in spelling.

Progression and delivery

The pace at which the programme is delivered is rapid but uses a lot of repetition so the children are constantly re-visiting sounds they have previously learnt. Children are grouped according to the stage they are currently working at.

Tracking and Assessment

All pupils are assessed every 6 weeks as they progress. During daily sessions of phonics there are also opportunities for practitioners to regularly assess children’s understanding. Outside the discrete daily phonics sessions there are opportunities to observe the application of phonic skills, e.g. during guided/ shared reading.

Regular monitoring of the assessment outcomes allows teachers and practitioners to ensure that all children are making expected progress, including children in the most vulnerable groups. This information is also used to identify children who are not making expected progress and therefore early intervention can be put in place.

Intervention

Through careful monitoring and tracking practitioners are able to identify children who are not making the expected progress and therefore need intervention to catch up. Depending on the needs of individuals, this may include additional individual or small group tutoring before the lesson or after the main lesson; one to one work with a trained practitioner or extra support for a child or small group of children within a lesson. It is important that children who are struggling to learn to read not only catch up with their peers, but also to continue to make progress.

Phonics in KS2

If children in Key Stage 2 experience difficulty in reading and/or writing because they have missed or misunderstood a crucial phase of systematic phonics teaching additional resources can be used to support them.

Provision for children in Nursery

As soon as children begin their journey in our school, strong foundations are set up to ensure children are ready to start Read, Write Inc when appropriate. The Nursery children develop a 'listening ear,' we feel that it is very important that they are able to identify sounds, discover what makes sounds and differentiate between these sounds before embarking on the Read, Write, Inc. journey.

How Read, Write, Inc supports children

Reading

When using RWI to read the children will:

• Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple prompts
• Learn to read words using sound blending (Fred talk)
• Read lively stories featuring words they have learnt to sound out
• Show that they comprehend the stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It'

Writing

When using RWI to write the children will:

• Learn to write the letter/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds
• Learn to write words by saying the sounds and graphemes (Fred fingers)

Talking

When using RWI the children will also work in pairs:

• To answer questions
• To take turns talking and listening to each other
• To give positive praise to each other

Blending

Help your child learn to read words by sounding-blending (Fred talk) eg. c-a-t = cat, sh-o-p = shop. Children learn to read words by blending the letter-sounds that are in the Speed Sounds set (shown further down the page).

Help your child to say the pure sounds ('m' not 'muh', 's' not 'suh' etc.) as quickly as they can, and then blend the sounds together to say the whole word.

Reading Books Sent Home

Once children can blend fluently and know the first 44 sounds they will bring home Ditty sheets or a red Ditty book.

Read Write Inc Books

Please encourage your child to read though the speed sounds page first, then the green and red words page and then check your child understands the meaning of words on the vocabulary check page, before they start reading the book. Your child will have read this book at least three times before they bring it home. They should be able to read this book with fluency and expression by the time they bring it home and they should have a good comprehension of what the book is about. At the back of the book are find it/prove it questions for you to do with your child.

Your child may also have a Read, Write, Inc book bag book to give them further practise with the sound that they have been learning in school.

Finally, don't worry if your child is struggling at first with their sounds and words, they will get there in their own time. If you have time (we know it is very precious!), we would urge you to try and read stories to your child before they go to bed. This will help develop a wider vocabulary which makes a vast difference to their quality of writing but it will also encourage them to enjoy a good story.

Help at Home

This Read Write Inc video introduces the daily phonics session to you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFyDwUKSw7Y

Ruth Miskin is the author of Read Write inc and her training company is responsible for the delivery of training to teachers. Ruth Miskin Training has a variety of videos on their Youtube channel to support parents. You will find these videos here,

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDe74j1F52zSCiOMSn3zQDSzgu9TrbQ1c 

Ruth Miskin also has links to these videos on her website

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/

Oxford publish Read write Inc and also have parent guides to help you on Oxford Owl, you will find these parent guides here.

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/