What is phonics at Westglade?

We have implemented Read Write Inc wholeheartedly across the whole school. Teachers and support staff have their own RWI group for the first 35 minutes of every day (Monday - Thursday, with 'Big Write' happening on Friday). Children are assessed at the end of every half term, with assessments being moderated, which allows quick movement between groups for children who are making rapid progress.  It also shows which children need more practise in a group. We see good and outstanding progress for the vast majority of pupils.

The pupils will be taking home a RWI book. These are changed in RWI lessons every 3 or 5 sessions - depending on the group they are in. They are encouraged to read these at home, alongside their book bag book. Regular reading at home will encourage reading fluency and enable rapid progression through the groups.

Those children who are in the beginning stages of the programme may not have a RWI storybook. Instead they will have a sound blending book and they may have a 'Ditty' sheet which they have read within their group. This will be sent home to be practised just like the RWI books.

How is phonics progressive?

Read Write Inc begins with our very youngest children in Nursery. They begin with a weekly sound, learning to read and write that sound while also practising oral blending.
When children move into F2 they join the main RWI programme and are streamed alongside other classes based on their individual reading needs. Each half term children are assessed and moved accordingly.

The first groups focus on letter/sound recognition and oral blending. When children are confident blenders they move to reading simple 'cvc' words such as cat, mat on word cards. As soon as they can independently read words they move on to our first reading group which is ditties. In ditty group they receive a sheet with some simple sentences on and they build up their reading stamina as well as learning some new RWI routines. 

The first story book level is red and this progresses up to grey, after which children are ready for 'Shared Reading' in class. 

Each day children also learn a new sound in our 'speed sound lessons'. This begins with our set 1 sounds where children learn the single letter sounds (m,a,s,d,t...) and then some early special friends (sh, ch, th, qu, ng, nk). 

Set 2 sounds introduce the vowel sounds (ay, ee, igh, ow) and one way of writing some other sounds (or, ar, air, ir, ou, oy).

In set 3 sounds, children learn the additional ways of writing a sound (for ay - a-e, ai) and use the letter names to distinguish their spelling choices.

What does Read Write Inc look like?