At Heronshaw School we teach a fun, systematic and synthetic phonics programme called Read Write Inc in order to inspire a lifelong love of reading. We stream throughout the school to improve the children’s outcomes by ensuring that class content is well-targeted to their needs, and that all children in lower attaining groups get the appropriate support. All children are assessed every half term to monitor progress, which allows the staff to put in extra 1:1 tuition to those that need it. All our staff are fully trained and to keep those skills embedded in our practice we have weekly masterclasses. As a result of RWI being such a fast-paced, rigorous and structured phonics programme it helps to get every child reading by the end of Foundation and encourages them to grow into confident, successful and fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. 

All lessons are fun, exciting and engaging. We use a Frog called Fred to play ‘Fred Talk’ games to help with oral blending and to assist children when reading words by sound-blending. Fred says the sound and children help him blend the sounds to read each word. Then we teach the children different spellings of the same sounds and use phrases to help them remember each sound, for example, ‘may I play?’ accompanies the ay sound. We refer to speed sounds charts so that children can begin to make connections between the different graphemes they are learning to represent the sounds. -We want children to work together so partner work is a key part of our RWI lessons. Children are introduced to fun new characters and words along with the tricky ‘red words’ prior to reading a RWI text. We want them to get excited about the story. They then read the book at least three times before taking a book home; where they should then be able to share the story confidently with some expression or a ‘storyteller’ voice. Our children also love the RWI praises and get extremely excited about choosing which one to use in the lessons. 

At Heronshaw School we believe that phonics provides the foundations of learning and underpins access to the rest of the curriculum. We recognise reading as a key life skill and these fundamental phonics skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances, which allow them to achieve their full potential. 

Mrs Ravilious is our phonics lead at school.

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a phonics based programme which helps children learn to read whilst also developing a wide range of vocabulary and encouraging a love of stories. It was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at www.ruthmiskinliteracy.com

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/phonics/
https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/programmes/phonics/

Look at some of the ways were encourage early reading

Below you will find links to key documents. 

Useful links

Video: What is Read Write Inc. phonics?

Video: Sound Pronunciation Guide. This video will help you see how we teach sounds at Heronshaw.

Understanding phonics Video to explain.

Video: Parent tips: How to read with your child.

Read Write Inc. Reading and Writing Kit. This pack is available online and would be a great support to all new readers.