Phonics

At SS. Mary & John’s Catholic Primary Academy our pupils learn to read effectively and quickly using the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme.

Read Write Inc. Phonics

The programme is for:

Pupils in Year R to Year 2 who are learning to read
Any pupils in Years 2, 3 and 4 who need to catch up rapidly
Nursery pupils begin to read sounds in the Summer term if appropriate.

In Read Write Inc. Phonics pupils:

Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
Read common exception words on sight
Understand what they read
Read aloud with fluency and expression

In addition, we teach pupils to work effectively with a partner to explain and consolidate what they are learning. This provides the teacher with opportunities to assess learning and to pick up on difficulties, such as pupils’ poor articulation, or problems with blending or alphabetic code knowledge.

We group pupils homogeneously, according to their progress in reading ability.

In Year Reception, we emphasise the alphabetic code. The pupils rapidly learn sounds and the letter or groups of letters they need to represent them. Simple mnemonics help them to grasp this quickly. This is especially useful for pupils at risk of making slower progress. This learning is consolidated daily. Pupils have frequent practice in reading high frequency words with irregular spellings – common exception words.

We make sure that pupils read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the common exception words. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their increasingly fluent decoding.

Alongside this, the teachers read a wide range of stories, poetry and non-fiction to pupils; they are soon able to read these texts for themselves.

Our aim is for pupils to complete the phonics programme as quickly as possible. The sooner they complete it, the sooner they will be able to choose books to read at their own interest and comprehension level.

We assess all pupils following Read Write Inc. Phonics using the regular assessment. We use this data to assign them to the appropriate Read Write Inc. phonics group. This gives us a very good indication of how well they are making progress relative to their starting points. We have high expectations of our pupils’ progress. We aim for all children to be accurate and speedy readers by the time they enter Key Stage 2.

If any child needs additional support, they receive daily 1:1 tutoring to help them catch up with their peers.

For further information click on the link https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/