English - Phonics

Vision

Our vision is that children quickly become enthusiastic and motivated readers. They have the ability to recognise, blend and segment sounds, in order to read words, as well as reading sight words, in order to become confident, fluent readers, who show a good understanding of what they have read. Our children read a wide range of high-quality genres and texts, promoting a love of literature and an enjoyment of reading for pleasure and for information, as well as using reading to promote reflective thinking. At the Nar Valley Federation we strive to teach children to read effectively and quickly. We passionately believe that teaching children to read and write independently, as quickly as possible, is one of the core purposes of a primary school. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. 

How we will achieve this?

At Nar Valley Federation we follow Read, Write, Inc. for our phonics teaching. This rigorous approach to the teaching of phonics ensures children make rapid progress from their starting points and was a DFE validated synthetic, systematic phonics programme (SSPs) as published in April 2021. 

Children begin Read, Write Inc. at the start of Reception year after the baseline assessments are complete, and continue across Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2). Every child between Reception and Year 2 has a daily phonics session which consists of speed sounds teaching of new phonemes, word reading, and as they move through the programme, the RWI storybook session. 

It teaches children to read accurately, fluently and with understanding, to spell, and to write their own compositions.

Direct teaching underpins Read Write Inc. It is the quickest route to ensuring all children learn to read and write. Every day, children learn new sounds, and review previous sounds and words. They apply what they’ve been taught by reading words containing the sounds they know in matched decodable books and other texts, and write these sounds in individual words and, later, sentences.

Teachers engage children and ensure their full participation using call and response, choral reading and partner practice. Partners practise everything they are taught and answer every question together. This keeps children working and thinking throughout the lesson, and gives teachers opportunities to check if something needs explaining more clearly.

Children learn the routines and behaviours necessary for each activity, and practise these until they use them automatically. This allows them to focus on what matters most – learning to read and write. (Ruthmiskin.com, 2022)

What does this look like? 

The Read, Write, Inc programme splits the sounds into three sets. Every day children learn their new sound, revise previous sounds and read words containing these sounds. Reception children will move onto seeing these sounds in short sentences in red ‘Ditty Books’. 

The speed sound session is then followed by the ‘storybook session’ (for years 1 and 2) where children read a book which is closely matched to their phonic ability. They discuss new vocabulary in the story and use their phonic ability to decode and read the text with fluency and expression. They work closely with a partner and may discuss and respond to parts of the story. 

How do we ensure pupils make rapid progress?

• Progress based groups - pupils work in groups based on their stage of learning. These groups work with an adult. The progress groupings ensure that pupils are able to have phonics tuition matched to their needs and are only recapping phonemes already taught and learning the appropriate phonemes for their stage. 

• Regular assessments - pupils are assessed regularly and then re-grouped accordingly. This means pupils move on in their learning when they are ready and secure.

Organisation of Storybooks

Read Write Inc grouping structure

Set 1 Sounds Group A

Set 1 Sounds Group B

Set 1 Sounds Group C

Ditty Group

Red Group

Green Group

Purple Group

Pink Group

Orange Group

Yellow Group

Blue Group

Grey Group