Intent

At St Nicholas CE Primary Academy, we strive to ensure all children become fluent readers who move on to develop a genuine love of reading.

Aims

• To teach children aural discrimination, phonemic awareness and rhyme awareness.
• To teach children to read and write the 44 graphemes in the English Language.
• To teach children to segment and blend to enable children to read and spell words.
• To enable children to spell accurately and automatically.

Implementation

The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1.  We use a synthetic phonics programme called ‘Read Write Inc’ produced by Ruth Miskin. Our staff teach learners the relationship between sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them.

All children in EYFS, KS1 and, where necessary, KS2, have daily phonics sessions in small ability groups where they participate in speaking, listening, spelling and reading activities that are matched to their current needs.

The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Timely intervention is planned for those children who are working below expected levels as soon as their needs are identified.

The Early Years Foundation Stage

We encourage the development of Literacy skills in the Early Years as this is part of the current Early Years Foundation Stage guidance. We relate the Literacy development of the children to the objectives set out in the Development Matters document and Early Learning Goals.

The children’s learning is led by the Read, Write Inc phonics programme, through which early reading and writing is taught.  

Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.

Read, Write, Inc.

Read Write Inc. Phonics is a DfE-validated systematic synthetic phonics programme with a whole-school approach to teaching early reading and writing, designed to ensure progress for every child.

Children learn to read sounds and blend them into words. They apply this phonic knowledge to read and comprehend Storybooks that are carefully matched to the sounds they know. Children learn to read these books with a storyteller’s voice. The aim of Read Write Inc. Phonics is for children to learn to read early. so that by the end of term 2 in Year 2 children are able to read stories at over 100 words per minute.
They also learn how to form letters using mnemonics to help them. They learn to spell correctly using their Fred fingers. And they learn to compose their own writing - drawing upon ideas from the story they’ve just read. Everything knits together: The phonics supports the reading and writing; The reading supports the writing, the writing supports the reading. 

RWI Comprehension

As children become secure with the RWI phonics programme, they then join our RWI comprehension group.  

Read Write Inc. Comprehension is a 14-week programme that develops children’s fluency and comprehension – the ideal next step for children who have completed Read Write Inc. Phonics, after which, they will join in whole class English lessons.  The Comprehension programme provides a transition from Read Write Inc. Phonics to Literacy and Language. It comprises 14 weekly Modules. Each Module has specially written texts (one fiction and one non-fiction) that develop children’s ability to summarise, infer and retrieve information quickly, as well improving their writing through cumulative vocabulary, grammar and spelling activities

Homework

All children who are accessing RWI lessons will bring a matched book bag book home each Monday.  These books should be read at home, at least three times over the week and logged in the child's reading record book.  Alongside this, the children also have their own Oxford Owl account, where they have a reading book to read and a quiz to complete which again, is matched to what they have been learning in their RWI lesson.  Reading these texts over and over again will enable the children to become confident, fluent readers.

Parent Support

Your support is vital to help your child progress through their phonics learning!  The information below will give you the knowledge to be able to help your child with their reading at home.

We appreciate phonics can be a daunting world with lots of unusual vocabulary that children use in their lessons.  Please take your time to view the videos below to find more out about synthetic phonics.