Teaching of Phonic Skills – Read Write Inc.

 

At Pinfold Street Primary School, our aim is for all pupils to be able to read fluently, confidently and to choose their own books to read for pleasure. In school, we use a phonics programme called Read Write Inc (RWI) to give your child the best possible start on their reading journey. Read Write Inc is a proven synthetic phonics programme that ensures early success in reading, writing and spelling. The teaching of RWI allows children to learn to read fluently and at speed so that they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.

 

Read Write Inc sessions are taught DAILY, in phonic knowledge groups, as soon as your child starts in Reception. We follow the structure and plan of the programme right through until children complete their phonics journey. RWI sessions are delivered to smaller, homogenous groups of pupils where we know that teaching and learning can thrive.

 

In addition to daily phonic sessions, ALL pupils receive:

• an additional daily speed sound lesson in the afternoon

• ‘pinny time’ which is carried out 5 times a day and is used for the quick revision and plugging of sounds.

 

We aim for pupils to be taught all of the sounds by the end of Year 1 where the Phonics Screening Check will take place. The Phonics Screening Check will provide the school and parents with an accurate assessment of where their child is at within the phonics programme. Please click on the following link for further information on the Phonics Screening Check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-information-for-parents

 

For some groups of pupils we may find that learning and remembering the sounds are more difficult and they may move through the sounds at a pace, which matches their needs. Any child who is working at a slower pace will be given additional support to allow them to reach their full potential. Additional support will consist of 1:1 or small group tutoring in addition to their daily phonics lesson.

 

Mrs Wilkinson and her assistant RWI leads (Mrs Perry and Mrs C Ward) monitor the teaching of phonics daily. Based on the outcomes of monitoring, regular training sessions are planned and delivered in school. As a school, we also offer training, coaching and practise sessions which are personalised for individual staff.

 

At Pinfold Street we are lucky enough to work alongside a consultant from Ruth Miskin. Our consultant oversees the day to day management of the teaching of early reading and offers suggestions for improving our teaching further. She also monitors the progress of groups of children and offers additional support where needed.

 

Our expectations at Pinfold Street are structured to ensure that any new pupil who joins our school regardless of where they are at within their phonics journey will be able to fit into a group of children with a similar ability to themselves. They will then move through the phonics programme at a rate in which the teaching and learning can be embedded.

 

As a school, we run regular meetings for the parents where we share our aims and approaches to teaching early reading. At the meetings, we share videos of our own pupils taking part in their day-to-day phonic lessons. We also upload videos of the sounds that our children are learning onto Seesaw so that children can continue practising their reading at home. If you would like to read more about RWI please click on the following link https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parentsandcarers/

 

Each September we provide our new joiners with a Pinfold book bag containing all of the RWI resources that they will need. The children will be able to enjoy using their resources at home, as their reading develops in school.

 

If you have any questions about the teaching of early reading please ask your child’s class teacher or Mrs Wilkinson.