By the end of the Reception year ALL children should be in the Purple RWI Group. 

‘Purple Group’.

They will continue to reinforce Set 1 sounds. They will also be learning new Set 2 sounds (ay, ee, igh, ow, oo, ar, or, air, ir, ou, oy). They will be working on ‘Purple books’. These books include fiction and non-fiction titles and will provide an opportunity to practise new sounds. They will also be working on a range of writing tasks related to these books. 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.

It is important that your son/daughter does not pronounce these as 2 or 3 separate sounds. When your son/daughter sees the ‘speed sound’ letters together in a word, s/he must say just one sound for these letters. When your son/daughter learns their Set 2 sounds in school 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 son/daughter can ‘sound out’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example, s-p-r-a-y spray.