Phonics & Reading

Early Reading and Phonics

 

At Maryport Church of England Primary School we start our reading journey using Read Write Inc. as our inclusive synthetic phonic programme to teach our children to read, to write and to spell. We have adopted this as our whole school approach as the programme facilitates a graduated and tailored approach to learning basic sounds and letter formation before advancing to more complex sounds and reading for comprehension.  The programme moves with integrity from learning to read to reading to learn.

R.W.I sessions occur each day from Reception as the continuity and pace of the programme is key to accelerating the progress of children’s reading development. This method of phonics teaching is both systematic and repetitive in order to embed learning; the programme also offers plenty of opportunities for fun based, interactive learning using drama, role play and props to engage with and to enjoy texts and stories. The children work in small groups according to their confidence and competence. These groups are reconfigured on a regular basis in order to match the pace and the progress of each child; this reconfiguration also allows Class Teachers to identify where 1:1 interventions may be required in order to meet the expectations of both the Phonics Check and the end of Key Stage 1.

Once children are fluent and confident in their reading they will 'graduate' from RWI and our focus will be to ensure comprehension skills are developed.

 

Aims and Objectives

The overarching objectives of the RWI programme are to teach pupils to:

• apply the skill of blending phonemes in order to read words.
• segment words into their constituent phonemes in order to spell words.
• learn that blending and segmenting words are reversible processes.
• read high frequency words that do not conform to regular phonic patterns.
• read texts and words that are within their phonic capabilities as early as possible.
• decode texts effortlessly so that their focus can be used on reading to learn (comprehension)
• spell effortlessly so that their focus can be directed towards the composition of their writing

 

Teaching and Learning Style

The core principles of the programme are;

• Praise – Pupils learn quickly in a positive climate.
• Pace – Good pace is essential to the lesson.
• Purpose – Every part of the lesson has a specific purpose.
• Passion –It is the energy, enthusiasm and passion that teachers invest into lessons that bring the teaching and learning to life!
• Participation - A strong feature of R.W.I. lessons is partner work; partners ‘teaching’ each other (based on research which states that we learn 70% of what we talk about with our partner and 90% of what we teach).

 

Nonsense words (Alien words) 

As well as learning to read and to blend real words, the children meet “Nonsense words.” These words present an opportunity to assess a child’s ability to decode using phonics. Children who can read non-words should have the skills to decode almost any unfamiliar word. Nonsense words will also feature in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term.

 

What is ‘Fred Talk’?  

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’ 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.

The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_Q

 

What are ‘speed sounds’?

In Read Write inc phonics the individual sounds are called ‘speed sounds’ – because we want your child to read them effortlessly. Set 1 sounds are the initial letter sounds. They are taught in the following order.

 

Set 1 speed sounds

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

 

When writing the letter sounds the children use a picture and a phrase to help form the letters correctly.

 

e.g. M – maisie, mountain, mountain

 

(See letter formation chart for all the set 1 letter sound formation charactrs)

 

Set 2 speed sounds

ay, ee, igh, ow, oo, oo,ar, or, air, ir, ou, oy

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
• We call these 2/3 letter sounds that go together ‘special friends’

 

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 (fred talk) s-p-r-ay = spray.

 

 

Vowel sound	Set 2 Speed Sound Rhyme	Green words (decodable)
ay	ay: may I play	day play say may way spray
ee	ee: what can you see?	See been seen sleep three green
igh	igh: fly high	high might light bright night fright
ow	ow: blow the snow	snow slow know show blow low
oo	oo: poo at the zoo	too zoo food pool moon spoon
oo	oo: look at a book	took shook cook foot look book
ar	ar: start the car	star part hard sharp car start
or	or: shut the door	sort short snort horse sport fork
air	air: that’s not fair	fair stair hair air lair chair
ir	ir: whirl and twirl	girl third whirl twirl dirt bird
ou	ou: shout it out	out mouth round found loud shout
oy	oy: toy for a boy	toy boy enjoy

 

 

Set 3 speed sounds

a-e, ea, i-e, o-e, u-e, aw, are, ur, ow, oi, ai, e, oa, ew, er, ire, ear, ure

 

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.

 

Vowel sound	Set 3 Speed Sound Rhyme	Green words (decodable)
a-e	a-e: make a cake	shake make cake name same late date
ea	ea: cup of tea	real please dream seat cream
i-e	i-e: nice smile	hide shine white nice time like smile
o-e	o-e: phone home	hope home phone spoke note broke
u-e	u-e: huge brute	tune use June  huge brute
aw	aw: yawn at dawn	saw paw yawn law dawn crawl
are	are: care and share	share dare scare square bare
ur	ur: nurse with a purse	burn turn spurt nurse purse hurt
ow	ow: brown cow	how now down brown town cow
oi	oi: spoil the boy	join coin voice
ai	ai: snail in the rain	snail paid tail paint train rain
e	e: he me she we	he me she we be
oa	oa: goat in a boat	goat boat road throat toast coat
ew	ew: chew the stew	chew new flew blew drew grew
er	er: better letter	never better weather proper corner after
ire	ire: fire fire	fire hire wire bonfire inspire conspire
ear	oar: hear with your ear	hear fear dear near ear
ure	ure: sure it’s pure	Pure sure cure picture mixture creature future

 

 

Click the link below to hear how to pronounce the sounds correctly.

https://youtu.be/UCI2mu7URBc?si=UDVbtQDeqboNIQB6 

 

What is ‘word time’?

As soon as children have learnt a few initial letter sounds they begin to learn to blend the sounds together to read real words in a Word Time session. Each word time session involves oral blending of known sounds before they are shown the words written down on green cards. Children practice Fred talking the words until they become able to read them on sight. Children who are becoming excellent at reading single words are introduced to reading whole sentences. Once children are confident reading the short sentences they are challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write a sentence.

 

Reading books

Children will first be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp:

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. The purpose of bringing home a book they can already read is to celebrate this achievement with you. Praise them for this success!

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.

 

Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.

Once your child has been introduced and taught these words in school we will send them home for you to continue practising with your child.

 

Once children can read the first set of Speed Sounds and can read the Ditties, they will start to bring home the Storybooks. These books have a text with a strong phonic structure which is perfectly matched to the sounds your child is currently practising. The language is natural and fluent and each story has a clear shape. Humour is a strong feature - children want to read the books again and again. The Storybooks will be brought home once children have completed all the work associated with this book. There are instructions in every book for you to follow.

 

It is important that you continue to read stories, non-fiction and poems to your child as this will help them hear the structure of texts and build up their vocabulary bank.

Why are the children in different groups for phonics?

All of the children participating in RWI are regularly assessed and their progress carefully monitored. After each assessment period we will reorganise the groups as necessary to ensure each child is in the correct grouping to learn the next set of sounds they need to become a fluent reader. All children will pick up phonics at slightly different rates, the important thing is that they are constantly making progress. If we feel a child is not making the progress we would expect, then we will give them extra 1:1 support in order that they keep up with their peers.

What is the Phonics Screening Check?

The national Phonics Screening Check was introduced in 2012 to all Year 1 pupils. It is a short, statutory assessment to ensure that children are making sufficient progress in the phonics skills to read words and are on track to become fluent readers who can enjoy reading for pleasure and for learning.

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading/read-write-inc-phonics-guide-for-parents/

 

Further links to support reading at home - 

 

Parents and Carers - Ruth Miskin Literacy

Phonics - Oxford Owl for Home

PhonicsPlay - Resources

Free eBook library | Oxford Owl from Oxford University Press

Reading at Maryport CE Primary School

Intent

At Maryport CE Primary School, we believe that reading is the foundation of all learning and central to children’s success across the curriculum. Our intent is to ensure that every child:

• Develops a love of reading that lasts a lifetime.

• Reads fluently, accurately and with good understanding in line with the National Curriculum aims.

• Develops a strong command of spoken and written language, and an ability to read widely and often, for both pleasure and information.

• Is exposed to a rich and diverse range of texts, enabling them to explore different cultures, perspectives and experiences.

We embed the National Curriculum aims by ensuring pupils are taught to:

• Read easily, fluently and with good understanding.

• Develop the habit of reading widely and often, both for pleasure and for information.

• Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.

• Appreciate and respond to our rich and varied literary heritage.

We want our children to become enthusiastic, confident readers who see reading as a gateway to imagination, creativity and success.

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Implementation

• Early Reading & Phonics: In the Early Years and Key Stage 1, we prioritise systematic, daily phonics teaching through Read Write Inc. Children remain on the programme until they are secure readers, at which point they graduate from RWI and move into our whole-school reading curriculum.

• Literacy Leaves: Once children complete RWI, they access the Literacy Leaves programme. This provides rich opportunities to fully analyse high-quality texts while focusing on a wide range of reading strands, such as inference, prediction, summarising, retrieval, vocabulary development and authorial intent.

• Book Club: Across the school, children take part in Book Clubs, where they can share the books they are reading and develop a love of stories and authors through discussion and recommendations.

• Poetry: All pupils are given opportunities to learn poems by heart and perform them to the school, building memory, fluency, confidence and enjoyment of language.

• Access to Books: Every classroom is stocked with a range of books that reflect pupils’ interests, alongside our well-stocked Infant and Junior libraries, which are regularly replenished to ensure children always have access to fresh, exciting reading material.

• Reading Plus (Year 5/6): In Upper Key Stage 2, children use Reading Plus to further develop fluency, comprehension and stamina. Reading Plus adapts to each child’s ability, promoting silent reading fluency, improving comprehension across multiple strands, and encouraging vocabulary growth, resilience and independence as readers.

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Impact

The impact of our approach to reading is that children at Maryport CE Primary School:

• Become confident, fluent and accurate readers who can access the full curriculum.

• Develop the skills to understand, evaluate and respond to what they read, showing resilience and independence.

• Show a lifelong love of reading, choosing to read widely for both pleasure and knowledge.

• Attain well in national assessments, with outcomes that reflect strong progress in reading across all year groups.

• Leave our school as articulate, enthusiastic readers who are prepared for the next stage of their education.

At Maryport CE Primary School, staff place reading as a priority and actively enjoy sharing books and stories with children. By embedding a love of reading into everything we do, we nurture children who are not only skilled readers, but also curious learners and thoughtful individuals.