Intent:
At Rutherford House School, we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We have adopted Read, Write, Inc (RWI) phonics and believe it provides the foundations of learning to make the development into fluent reading and writing easier. Children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. Through RWI phonics, children learn a simple alphabetic code followed by a more complex code. All reading books progress cumulatively, matched to the sounds children are learning and already know. The teaching of phonics is of high priority.
Implementation:
- The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage 1. Phonics is taught daily to all children in EYFS, Year 1 and those in Year 2 who have not passed the phonics screening in Year 1 or completed the Read, Write, Inc (RWI) phonics programme.
- In the EYFS, a vital aspect in the development of essential knowledge and skills in phonics is the use of continuous provision. This means that children are using and developing taught skills throughout the year on a daily/weekly basis.
- We constantly provide enhancement opportunities to engage learners and link to our topics. We encourage children to be independent in the continuous provision.
- Children also take part in daily synthetic phonics sessions, which follow the Read Write Inc. scheme. Children are encouraged to transfer the skills they learn in phonics sessions into their independent reading and writing in the continuous provision.
- Children are taught to:
- decode letter/sounds correspondences quickly and effortlessly,
using their phonic knowledge and skills to read ‘tricky’ (red words) on sight - understand what they read
- read aloud with fluency and expression
- write confidently, with a strong focus on vocabulary and grammar
- spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
- acquire good handwriting
- In addition, children are taught to work effectively with a partner to explain and consolidate what they are learning. This provides the teacher with opportunities to assess learning and to pick up on difficulties, such as children’s poor articulation, or problems with blending or alphabetic code knowledge.
- Children are grouped according to their progress in reading rather than their writing. This is because it is known that children’s progress in writing will lag behind progress in reading, especially for those whose motor skills are less well developed.
- Staff ensure that children read books that are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the ‘red words’. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Alongside this, the teachers read a wide range of stories, poetry and non-fiction to children: they are soon able to read these texts for themselves.
- Adults read stories to the children every day where a love of reading is promoted.
- For those children who are not making the expected level of progress in phonics and reading, we put in place 1:1 or small group interventions. With RWI, one-to-one tutoring is prioritised for those struggling to make expected phonics progress within Reception to Year 3.
Impact
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1 and ongoing assessment throughout the Read, Write, Inc programme..
We firmly believe that reading is the key to unlocking all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes well beyond the results of the statutory assessments. We give all children the opportunity to enter the magical worlds that books open up to them. We promote reading for pleasure as part of our reading curriculum. Children are encouraged to develop their own love of genres and authors and to review their books objectively. This enhances a deep love of literature across a range of genres, cultures and styles.
Rutherford House uses the Read Write Inc – Ruth Miskin phonic programme to teach Phonics.
Below is a link to the Ruth Miskin website for details on the programme;
http://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/resources/1/
Phonics is taught daily in EYFS and four times per week in Year 1 and Year 2. We only use the phonic speed sound part of the lesson working through the different sounds.
Children are put into groups according to their stage in phonetic development. These groups are flexible and children move across groups as needed. They are assessed at the end of each half term. Additional phonics sessions are provided for any children who need further support and for children who did not pass the Year 1 phonics check.
