Believe, Grow, Achieve

English

At Wilberfoss, we recognise the huge importance on developing reading, writing and speaking and listening skills. Reading has a central part in our curriculum, and we believe that children must be proficient and fluent readers in order to succeed in all academic areas.

Reading


Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We can achieve this together through:

  • Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school
  • Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
  • Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home                                          

At Wilberfoss Primary School we place reading at the heart of our curriculum. We aim for all our children to become fluent, confident and passionate about reading.

We use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start to their reading journey. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.

Mrs Cartmail is Phonics Leader at the school, so if you have any questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the information as to how you can help and support your child in reading at home.

Our Reading River - follow reading through each year group

reading river 23 24.pdf

 

 

Reading Session:  Parent Presentation 

reading at wilberfoss.pdf

 

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics programme which helps 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. However, we begin the programme in Foundation stage 1 if and when children are ready and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading. 

How will RWI be taught?

RWI phonics is taught in  groups focusing on children's recognition of the letter sounds and how to read and write these. In Foundation stage and Key Stage 1 children are taught in small groups, led either by the class teacher or by trained learning support staff. The children are assessed regularly by our RWI lead teacher to ensure that they are in the appropriate group working with children at the same level. This allows for complete participation in lessons and supports and extends their individual needs. Read Write Inc. continues to form the basis for the teaching of spelling from Year 2 upwards.

Foundation stage 1

When appropriate, children will be introduced to the initial sounds in short sessions and activities linked to the sounds will be in continuous provision throughout the week.

Foundation stage 2

In F2 all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

Reading

The children:

  • learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
  • learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
  • read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
  • work well with partners
  • develop comprehension skills in stories by answering questions

Writing

The children:

  • learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
  • learn to write words by using Fred Talk
  • learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write 

Talking

The children

  • They work in pairs so that they:
  • answer every question
  • practise every activity with their partner
  • take turns in talking and reading to each other
  • develop ambitious vocabulary

Year One & Year Two onwards

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for 30 minutes.  Once children become fluent, speedy readers they will move off the phonics programme and into guided reading groups.

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.

Children will be taught how to read as follows:

Each phonics session will focus on a key sound of the day. Each sound has a little rhyme to help the children remember them. The sounds are split up into three sets according to difficulty. Sounds lists and rhymes can be accessed below along with how each sound should be pronounced.

Fred Talk

 

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.

At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! We call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.

Once children become confident with Fred talking words out loud we encourage them to ‘Fred in their head’ where they are sounding out and blending words in their heads.

Then this leads onto reading words speedily. 

In each phonic session children will also read a book linked to the sounds that they have been learning to help apply their knowledge.

The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets - see our sound chart and thymes sheet below:

read write inc phonics letter rhymes grid docx.pdf

 

How do we say the sounds?

Why read with your child?

//www.youtube.com/embed/kjHqJQ8sxs4#t=0.5

Teaching blending

//www.youtube.com/embed/vTRZB1j_ccg#t=0.5

Two letters one sound

//www.youtube.com/embed/KkEy9lW6aEE#t=0.5

 Reading Set 3 sounds

//www.youtube.com/embed/2o2b7nL1jrg#t=0.5

Spelling Set 3 Sounds

//www.youtube.com/embed/dftlTCNWlMQ#t=0.5

 

Real Words

Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.

Word Lists

Set 1 words to read

set 1 green words.pdf

Set 2 words to read

set 2 green words.pdf

Set 3 words to read

set 3 green words.pdf

Red words that cannot be sounded out

red words.pdf

During the RWI sessions children will read the coloured book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise their reading, expression and develop their comprehension skills.

 

Nonsense words (Alien words)          

As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the Summer term. 

Order of Story books

Children will hopefully follow the order listed below. The expectation is that all children will leave Year One as confident speedy readers, ready to take on the challenges of Year Two. However, some children may need extra support and your teacher will talk to you about this. 

Books

Year Group Expectations

Lilac books (no words)

Foundation stage

Sound blending

books

Foundation stage

Ditty Sheets

Foundation stage

Red 

Foundation stage

Green

Foundation stage

Purple

Foundation stage/Year One

Pink

Year One

Orange

Year One

Yellow

Year One

Blue

Year One/Year Two

Grey

Year Two

 

To help at home:

The children will bring home a Read, Write, Inc book bag book which is their home reading book that is directly linked to their phonic level and compliments what they are reading during their phonic sessions. 

There are guides to help you get the most out of the books which directly link to what we teach in school.  Each guide is listed below but a copy will also be stapled in their reading records. Books need to be read at least three times at home to develop fluent, speedy, expressive reading with a solid understanding of what they have read.

Parent Guide - Lilac Books (no words)

lilac books guide.pdf

Parent Guide - Sounds Blending Books

sound blending books guide.pdf

Parent Guide - Ditty Sheets

ditty sheets guide.pdf

Parent Guide - Red/Green/Purple/Pink/Orange books

red green purple pink orange guide.pdf

Parent Guide - Yellow/Grey/Blue books

yellow blue grey guide.pdf

Phonics Screening Check - Year 1

The Year 1 phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.

It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.

The screening check takes place in the summer term of Year 1 and is done on a 1-1 basis with the class teacher.

Reading Book letter for parents

Suggested Book Lists for each year group:

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/

https://peters.co.uk/100-books-for-every-year-group-primary
What does reading look like in KS2?

reading at wilberfoss ce primary.pdf

the reading process .pdf

 

Useful websites for Parents

Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child  learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/- online reading books and support materials for parents

http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - many games to play

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/ - fun games for the children to play

http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html  - fun games for the children to play

http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/kentict_home.cfm  - fun games for the children to play and information for parents

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/  - fun games for the children to play

http://www.starfall.com/  - fun games for the children to play

http://www.firstschoolyears.com/  - fun games for the children to play

BBC Bitesize - many games to play covering all areas of the curriculum

Writing:

In EYFS children are given opportunities to become immersed in an environment rich in print and possibilities for communication. They use a writing book but mark making is practiced in lots of areas. The children who are reluctant to write are encouraged through immersing in story and provision such as the Message Centre. This allows children to explore mark making but with early letter formation being central, ensuring children love to write but are learning key skills along the way.

At Wilberfoss, we incorporate Talk for Writing and other models into the teaching of writing. In EYFS and KS1 this is particularly well used, ensuring children develop oracy skills that impact on their writing. In KS2 children are taught writing skills through studying a range of both fiction and non-fiction texts including teacher produced models. The teacher as an author, modelling how to write is central to developing the skills of a writer, alongside unpicking class texts at a sentence and word level.

The Writing Process

the writing process.pdf

Writing for each stage

new writing assessments.pdf

 How to use Read, Write Inc to teach letter formation

//www.youtube.com/embed/ijd45Qddxfo#t=0.5