Phonics

Subject Leader: Alice Nash

Curriculum Team: English

Phonics at school

‘Reading changes everything. Teach a child to read and keep that child reading and we will change everything. And I mean everything.’ Jeanette Winterson

At Pinkwell Primary School we wholeheartedly believe that with the right support all children can learn how to read. To ensure this happens we do this by teaching reading through Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI). 

We want our children to learn how to read quickly and accurately and then to keep on reading throughout their life. We believe that children who are read to regularly and foster a love of reading will have the best opportunity and start in life. These tools will help them become independent lifelong learners.

Here at Pinkwell phonics is taught daily to all children from the Summer term in Nursery through to Reception and Key Stage One. RWI is a consistent programme which supports all children to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. They learn to form letters and spell words correctly. 

https://global.oup.com/education/content/primary/series/rwi/phonics/

https://youtu.be/-6dSsXkD1wM

Read Write Inc programme works because we get children’s brain COGS working:

Everything CONNECTS: children connect sounds with mnemonic pictures; words with their meanings; and stories with the sounds they know. They connect their own experiences to the stories they read and learn to lift the words off the page.

Children learn ONE thing at a time and practise it until it becomes second nature. Interactive practice keeps children focused, and their capacity to learn develops exponentially. 

They learn at their GOLDILOCKS spot (not too easy, not too hard) with others at a similar challenge level. No time is wasted.

Children remember what they learn by SAYING it out loud to a partner. If they can’t explain it, the teacher repeats it until they can.

What’s more, our teachers are trained so they have the capacity to show love for what they do. The more they love teaching, the more the children love learning.

This programme is progressive with the Set 1 Sounds taught first. Once the children are secure they are then taught the Set 2 and Set 3 Sounds respectively.

Each sound has a rhyme which is taught alongside it. 

As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words feature heavily in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. 

Click here to practice the sounds at home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFn8TEQeBaA

Children learn to read words through blending of phonemes and graphemes together to make words. Fred the frog plays a massive part in our daily phonics lessons. Please watch this video below to support your child learning to blend. 
https://youtu.be/dEzfpod5w_Q

At the end of Year One all the children in the country take a statutory assessment called the  Phonics Screening Check.  They have to read 40 real and nonsense words.  We call the nonsense words ‘Alien words’ and the children practice reading them every day.  If you want to see an example of a test click here.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-sample-materials-and-training-video

If you have any questions or would like any further support please speak to our Phonics Lead, Miss Francis. 

At our last Phonics Coffee Morning we spoke about the importance of phonic lessons and reading daily. 
Please look at the following links below to support your child at home and the importance of reading with your child daily. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdpxx0j2Sg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdjxtRrzOyo