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Phonics
At Graiseley Primary school, we follow Read Write Inc. which is phonics programme that encourages children to read and write with speed and accuracy. Children are taught letter sounds (speed sounds) and how to blend letter sounds to read words. They practise their blending skills by reading and writing using their phonic books. An important part of our phonics lessons is reading and understanding the books and particularly learning new vocabulary. Children also practise applying their phonic skills to spelling and writing activities and are grouped by reading ability for these lessons.
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Mrs Cartwright is our RWI leader
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What is Read Write Inc?
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Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling. It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write. The children are assessed by the RWI lead teacher and grouped according to their ability. Small group phonics lessons are taught daily by trained staff and there are consistent expectations across the range of abilities. At the end of each half term the children are assessed to check on their progress and regrouped.
Children learn sounds in school which help them to read and write. They then practise these skills through reading 'Book Bag Books' at home which are specifically pitched to both consolidate learning and provide challenge in an engaging and fun way! This is what they look like.
Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions
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Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about
Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally
When we teach new sounds, we only use ‘pure’ sounds as this enables the child to hear the word when the begin to blend. The video below illustrates how we pronounce each sound.
The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets.
Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
m: Maisie, mountain, mountain
a: round the apple, down the leaf
s: slither down the snake
d: round his bottom, up his tall neck and down to his feet
t: down the tower, across the tower
i: down the body, dot for the head
n: down Nobby, over his net
p: down the plait and over the pirate’s face
g: round her face, down her hir and give her a curl
o: all around the orange
c: curl around the caterpillar
k: down the kangaroo’s body, tail and leg
u: down and under, up to the top and draw the puddle
b: down the laces to the heel, round the toe
f: down the stem and draw the leaves
e: lift off the top and scoop our the egg
l: down the long let
h: down the head to the hooves and over his back
r: down his back and then curl over his arm
j: down his body, curl and dot
v: down a wing, up a wing
y: down a horn, up a horn and under his head
w: down, up down up
x: zig-zag-zig
q: round her head, up past her earrings and down her hair
x: down the arm and leg and repeat the other side.
The children are then taught  Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels.
Set 2 Sounds
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ay: may I play
ee: what can you see
igh: fly high
ow: blow the snow
oo: poo at the zoo
oo: look at the book
ar: start the car
or: shut the door
air: that’s not fair
ir: whirl and twirl
ou: shout it out
oy: toy for a boy
When they are very confident with all Set 1 and 2, they are taught  Set 3 Sounds.
Set 3 Sounds
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ea: cup of tea
oi: spoil the boy
a-e: make a cake
i-e: nice smile
o-e: phone home
u-e: huge brute
aw: yawn at dawn
are: share and care
ur: purse for a nurse
er: a better letter
ow: brown cow
ai: snail in the rain
oa: goat in a boat
ew: chew the stew
ire: fire fire!
ear: hear with your ear
ure: sure it’s pure?
tion: (celebration)
tious / cious: (scrumptious / delicious)
e: he me we she be 
Reception
In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. Those who are ready, will begin to read simple words within books and write some of these.
Year 1 and Year 2
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Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for 45 minutes.
Additional support is put into place to ensure that children are able to ‘keep up’ rather than catch up. This can take the form of on the spot intervention or accessing our 1:1 tutoring programme.
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KS2
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KS2 early reading journey is based upon the needs of the individual child. Following an initial assessment, the outcome determines whether the child accesses an RWI lesson or has shorter daily inputs. This could take the form of 1:1 tutoring or small focused group sessions.
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