‘Reading makes all other learning possible. We have to get books into our children’s hands early and often.’

Barack Obama 

Our vision is for all children to become confident, fluent readers, who develop a true love of reading.

Read Write Inc
At Berrow, we use the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to begin our children’s reading and writing journey. RWI is a method of learning to read through letter sounds and synthetic phonics and it has proven to get children off to a flying start.  All children throughout Early Years and KS1 follow the RWI programme to ensure a systematic approach to the teaching of this es­sential part of learning to read. Early reading takes place across the school for 40 minutes per day 8.50-9.30am. 

They are taught in small groups by our early reading teaching team who have all had specific and specialised training in RWI. All of our RWI lessons a taught using a consistent and repeated approach. 

• Revisit the phonemes (sounds) already learn
• Teach new phonemes and graphemes
• Practise new phonemes learned
• Apply the new phonemes by reading and writing words
• Assess the new knowledge

Fred the Frog puppet plays an important role in our Read Write Inc. lessons. Fred is only able to speak in sounds, not whole words. We call this Fred Talk.

For example, Fred would say m – a – t and we would say mat. Fred talk helps children read unfamiliar words by pronouncing each sound in the word one at a time. Children can start blending sounds into words as soon as they know a small group of letters well. During lessons, children are taught to hear sounds and blend them together in sequence to make a word. We start with blending oral sounds, then progress to reading the letters and blending them together to read the word.

When teaching the children, we ensure they say the ‘pure’ sounds. If you would to support your child in saying these sounds, please follow the link to a video which will support you in pronouncing the sounds correctly: 

Order of teaching sounds
In Read Write Inc phonics, the individual sounds are called ‘speed sounds’ – because we want your child to be able to read them effortlessly.

In preschool, we introduce the children to the RWInc pictures and Fred Talk games. In Reception, children begin to learn Set 1 and progress through the programme. 

Set 1 sounds are the initial letter sounds. They are taught in the following order:

m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h, sh, r, j, v, y, w, th, z, ch, qu, x, ng, nk

There are 12 Set 2 ‘speed sounds’ that are made up of two or three letters which represent just one sound, e.g. ‘ay’ as in play, ‘ee’ as in tree and ‘igh’ as in high.

When children learn their Set 2 sounds they will learn:

• the letters that represent a speed sound e.g. ay
• a simple picture prompt linked to the ‘speed sound’ and a short phrase to say e.g. may I play.

Every speed sound has a list of green words linked to it, so your child can ‘sound out’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example s-p-r-ay = spray.

When learning their Set 3 speed sounds they will be taught that there are more ways in which the same sounds are written, e.g. ee as in tree and ea as in tea.

It is expected that by the time children are in Year two they will have progressed through all the phonics phases. In order to support all pupils, daily phonics and speed sound sessions take place in Year two and spelling rules are taught in line with the National Curriculum programme of study using the Spelling Shed programme and resources.

In June, all Year 1 children complete a phonics screening check which is a short assessment to assess children’s phonics ability in decoding unknown words (also known as alien words) to an appropriate standard. The test consists of 40 words using a variety of phonemes and graphemes that they have been taught. These words consist of real and nonsense words.  Pupils who do not reach the expected standard in Year 1 will be provided with additional phonics support and intervention in order to allow them to meet the expected standard in Year 2.

What can you do to help at home?

1. Use Fred Talk to help your child to read and spell words (use sounds not letter names).
2. Encourage your child to read their RWI Storybook.
3. Watch the Virtual Classroom films together.
4. Read stories to your child every day.

How do I use the Virtual Classroom?

1. Set aside 10 minutes to watch a film with your child each day.
2. Find a quiet space for your child to watch the film on a laptop or tablet.
3. Praise your child as they join in with the lesson – make it fun!

Find more free parent resources on www.ruthmiskin.com

or via Oxford Owl - Read Write Inc Phonics Guide for Families 

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

Tutoring

At Berrow, every child matters and those children who still need support with phonics and early reading during Early years/KS1 and beyond, will be supported using Fast Track Tutoring and Fresh start programmes. 

What is Fast Track Tutoring? 

We believe 'rigorous keep-up reduces catch up' and therefore we provide all children who require further support with learning to read between Reception and Year 4 with fast track tutoring. 

Fast Track tutoring provides children with a 1:1 or 1:2  speedy sound session to help fill any sound gaps. These sessions take place for 10 minutes daily. 

What is Fresh Start? 

Fresh Start is a systematic synthetic phonics programme for struggling readers aged 9 – 13+. In primary schools, it is for children who:

• are reading below age-related expectations
• have missed schooling or are late arrivals into school
• are new to the UK education system
• are learning English as an additional language.

Fresh Start builds children’s reading accuracy, fluency and stamina in less than 25 minutes a day. Children make as much as two years’ progress in only two months. This programme involves: 

• Quick diagnostic assessment. Children start at their highest point on the programme for speedy progress, whether this is for accurate decoding or for reading fluency – or both.
• Daily phonics lessons at each child’s ‘challenge point’. Children progress quickly because they learn and review letter-sounds and words at their level.
• Motivating age-appropriate Modules. Older readers enjoy applying their new phonic knowledge to engaging matched decodable stories and non-fiction texts.

We believe in giving children the best possible chance to succeed in reading before they move up to secondary school.