Phonics support for parents

Parents' workshops

We held two workshops in October to support parents in understanding how we teach phonics in school.

If you missed it, you can watch Miss Warner do her presentation here:

As a school we follow the Read Write Inc Phonics Programme.

What is Read Write Inc?

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.

The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Twin Oaks, we will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/

How will RWI be taught?

All children are assessed regularly by their teacher so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons. Children are taught in small groups by our highly trained teachers and teaching assistants. Children in Reception to Year 2 may be in groups with children from other classes for their phonics lessons.

Talking

The children work a lot in pairs so that they answer every question, practise every activity with their partner, take turns in talking and reading to each other and develop ambitious vocabulary. We call this 'Talk to your partner' and it is used throughout the key stage one curriculum, in order to embed the concept of collaborative learning.

Reading

The children learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts (see below).

They learn to read words using Fred talk* and sound blending read from a range of storybooks matched to their phonic knowledge.

They are taught to work well with partners develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions about what they have read.

Writing

The children learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases learn to write words

They learn to hear the sounds in the words by using Fred fingers

Children learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write

* Fred Talk: Your child will be introduced to a class toy called Fred; Fred is a frog and he will help your child read and spell words. Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs the childre to help him read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word. For example, Fred will say the sounds c–a–t, and children will say the word cat.

This is Fred Talk: sounding out the word.

Letter formation

When teaching children to write we teach them a rhyme to go whit the letter formation. This ensures that they form the letters correctly and supports their ability to join their writing as they get older