Phonics

What is Read Write Inc. Phonics? 

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We can achieve this together through:

• Read Write Inc., a program to help your child read at school
• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
• Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home.

At Atkinson Road, we use Read Write Inc. Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.

Mrs Daglish is our Read Write Inc. Lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWI, contact [link to Contact page] the school office who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in reading.

What is Read Write Inc.?

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme that 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 Atkinson Road, we begin the programme in Nursery and 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 here.

Reading opens the door to learning. A child who reads a lot will become a good reader. A good reader will be able to read more challenging material. A child who reads challenging material is a child who will learn. The more a child learns, the more he or she will want to find out.

Using RWI, children learn to read effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read. It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write.

When using RWI to read the children will:

• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple picture prompts
• learn to read words using Fred Talk
• read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out
• show that they comprehend the stories by answering questions.

When using RWI to write the children will:

• learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent 44 sounds.
• learn to write words by saying the sounds in Fred Talk
• write simple sentences

Helping at Home 

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident with some initial sounds. Please help them to read and give lots of praise!

The link below will give you some idea about how you can read with your child:

Reading to your child

The Year 1 phonics screening check is not a formal test, but a way for teachers to ensure that children are making sufficient progress with their phonics skills to read words and that they are on track to become fluent readers who can enjoy reading for pleasure and for learning.

Year 1 children usually take the phonics screening check in early June. However, due to school closures the check did not take place this year. Instead, schools are required to use a past version of the check with Year 2 pupils in November or December 2020. The link below will give you more information about the phonics screening. 

Phonics screening checkA free e-library has been created to help children aged 3–11 to develop their reading skills at home. You’ll find books from Oxford’s most popular primary school brands including Oxford Reading Tree and Read Write Inc., as well as stories from our Read with Oxford range, all available for free.

Free eBook library by OxfordOwl

If you have any other questions about RWI, please see your class teacher or see Mrs Daglish.