Read Write Inc. Phonics

Reading and Phonics at John of Gaunt

John of Gaunt is a RWI school. We started on this new program of phonics and reading in September 2020 in order to give the children the best start we could to their reading and writing journey.

RWI have a mission which is to teach every child to read and write and to keep them reading with no exceptions.

This is what RWI says about the programme.

Read Write Inc. programmes work because we get children’s brain ‘COGS’ working.

Everything Connects: children connect sounds with mnemonic pictures; words with their meanings; and stories with the sounds they know. They connect their own experiences to the stories they read and learn to lift the words off the page.

Children learn one thing at a time and practise it until it becomes second nature. Interactive practice keeps children focused and their capacity to learn develops exponentially.

They learn at their GOLDILOCKS spot (not too easy, not too hard) with others at a similar challenge level. No time is wasted.

Children remember what they learn by saying it out loud to a partner. If they can’t explain it, the teacher repeats it until they can.

Children work in their RWI groups every morning for the first 40 minutes of the day. Their RWI group maybe with children from their own year group but may also be with children from other year groups as they work in the right group for their phonic and reading ability.

Children are assessed every half term and move RWI groups accordingly following the assessment.

The RWI lesson is very structured and follows the same pattern no matter where you are on the programme so children become very familiar with the routines. RWI lessons involve learning letter sounds, learning special friends, Fred talk, reading speedy green words, reading red words, reading alien words, reading a text and also writing sentences and that is all within the 40 minute lesson!

Children also have ‘pinny time’ in the afternoon where they practice their letter sounds and special friends and also their green words and alien words too.

Each week the children bring home the RWI book that they have been working on in their group to share at home. This book will be very familiar to them and they should be able to read it well. This supports their fluency and enables them to feel successful as a reader. They also bring home a ‘book bag book’ which is a partner story to their group book but this will be unfamiliar to them. However, no books come home which contain sounds that they have not already learnt in school.

Like RWI we want all our children to be able to read and write and keep reading and writing as we know that this is crucial to their whole learning journey. We know that RWI is the best way to achieve this with our children.