At St. Helen’s  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! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners.

We can achieve this together through:

• Teaching ‘Read Write Inc’ phonics programme in school
• All children reading decodable books until they have finish the phonic programme
• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by giving them access to a wide range of books at home and school
• Listening to and reading to children at home and school
   
  At St. Helen’s  we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their Reading. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.
  Mrs Murwisi 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 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 systematic synthetic 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. RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.
   
  How is Read Write Inc taught?
  RWI is taught daily in school to children in FS2 and Year 1 and any children in Year 2, 3 and 4 that have not finished the programme. Children are assessed regularly and grouped according to ability. Sessions last up to 30 minutes.  The group sizes vary according to the age and the needs of the individual children.  
   
  Children will be taught how to read as follows:
   
  Fred Talk
   
  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.
  At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! we call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
   
  The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_Q
   
  Set 1 Sounds
   
  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.

Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Set 2 and 3 Sounds

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

Nonsense words (Alien/Monster words)          

As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term. 

Develop the Love of Reading!                                         

• Visiting the local library and borrowing books.
• Taking part in the ‘Reading Challenge’ in school.
• Encourage adults at home to be seen reading. Allowing children to see adults as readers really does help create a culture of reading and promote that reading is fun and pleasurable and must continue into later life!
   
  Phonics Screening Check Year One
  What is the Year 1 phonics screening check?
  The Year 1 phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.
  It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.  Click here for further information on the Screening check.
   
  Useful websites for Parents
  Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child  learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.
  http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - many games to play
  http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html  - fun games for the children to play
   https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/useful information about RWI include how to pronounce all the sounds/phonemes.