At Stower Provost we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading. Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! Reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners. We can achieve this together through:

• Read Write Inc, a programme to help your child read
• 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

We use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) in Reception and Year 1 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. Miss Lloyd is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read this invaluable information as it will help you to support your child with their reading.

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.  It also allows them to spell effortlessly so that they can put all their energy into composing what they write. The children are assessed by the RWI lead teacher and grouped according to their ability. Small group phonics lessons are taught daily by trained staff and there are consistent expectations across the range of abilities. At the end of each half term the children are assessed to check on their progress and regrouped.

Children learn sounds in school which help them to read and write. They then practise these skills through reading ‘Book Bag Books’ at home which are specifically pitched to both consolidate learning and provide challenge in an engaging and fun way! This is what they look like.

Other phonetically decodable books will be set via ‘Oxford Owl’ and are accessible to read at home and in school. Each child will be provided with their individual log-in information for Oxford Owl by their class teacher. You will find it on the inside cover of their home school diary.

There are 5 key principles that underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:

• Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about
• Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
• Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
• Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
• Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally

In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. Those who are ready, will begin to read simple words within books and write some of these.

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for one hour.

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.

Please do not use letter names at this early stage. Watch the video below to find out how to pronounce the ‘pure’ sounds.

The children are then taught  Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels.

ay: may I play
ee: what can you see 
igh: fly high  
ow: blow the snow  
oo: poo at the zoo  
oo: look at the book 

ar: start the car 
or: shut the door  
air: that’s not fair 
 ir: whirl and twirl  
ou: shout it out  
oy: toy for a boy 

When they are very confident with all Set 1 and 2, they are taught  Set 3 Sounds.

ea: cup of tea
oi: spoil the boy
a-e: make a cake
i-e: nice smile
o-e: phone home
u-e: huge brute
aw: yawn at dawn
are: share and care
ur: purse for a nurse
er: a better letter

ow: brown cow
ai: snail in the rain
oa: goat in a boat
ew: chew the stew
ire: fire fire!
ear: hear with your ear
ure: sure it’s pure?
tion: (celebration)
tious / cious: (scrumptious / delicious)
e: he me we she be

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily. Fred is our Read, Write Inc. friend. He can only speak in sounds, so we help him learn to say words instead of sounds. For example, Fred says ‘m-a-t’ instead of mat. We also teach him not to add ‘uh’ to our sounds to keep them pure. For example, we say ‘c’ and not ‘cuh‘.

Children will: 

• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts 
• learn to read words using sound blending 
• read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out 
• after meaningful discussion led by an adult, children show that they comprehend the stories by answering questions 

Children will: 

• learn to write the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds 
• learn to write words by saying the sounds and graphemes 
• learn to build sentences orally using adventurous vocabulary 
• start with simple sentences and develop towards more complex ones by the end of the programme 

Children are assessed so they work alongside children at the same level. This allows them to fully participate in all lessons. 
They work in pairs so that they:

• answer every question 
• practise every activity with their partner 
• take turns in talking to each other