Early Reading & Phonics

Read Write Inc

At East Stour Primary School, we are passionate and committed to ensuring that every child becomes a reader and develops a love of reading through our phonics programme, during exciting, language rich reading lessons. From the 7 accredited phonics programmes, we have chosen to teach Reading through a systematic, synthetic phonics programme called Read Write Inc, which your child is introduced to on their first day in reception. It is an extremely successful phonics programme and is embedded in many schools around the country and the world. It’s track record is incredible and it supports every single child on their reading journey regardless of their experiences before starting school. The programme is a systematic, whole school approach which aims to develop children’s phonic knowledge and reading ability. The main aim of Read Write Inc is to enable every child to become a confident and fluent reader by the time they leave primary school. To find out more key information about the Read Write Inc phonics scheme, please watch this powerpoint:

Your child is learning to read with Read Write Inc. Phonics, a very popular and successful literacy programme. Your child will learn to read in a very simple way. He or she will learn to:

Read letters by their ‘sounds’
Blend these sounds into words
Read the words in a story.

Before you get going, visit www.ruthmiskin.com/parents to see how is the perfect way to articulate the sounds. Why not try to practise saying the sounds clearly with and without your child. The more clearly you say the sounds, the more quickly your child will learn them.

How will your child learn to read?

Your child will start by learning Set 1. Here are the Set 1 sounds:

Set 1 Speed Sounds: these are sounds written with one letter: m a s d t i n p g o c k u b f e l h r j v y w z x and sounds written with two letters (your child will call these ‘special friends’): sh th ch qu ng nk ck
Fred Talk – sounding out the word before reading (blending) sound-blending – putting sounds together to make a word, e.g. c–a–t cat special friends – sounds written with more than one letter, e.g. sh, ng, qu, ch Speed Sounds – the individual sounds that make up words
Words containing these sounds, by sound-blending, e.g. m–a–t mat, c–a–t cat, g–o–t got, f–i–sh fi sh, s–p–o–t spot, b–e–s–t best, s–p–l–a–sh splash
Blending Books and Red, Green and Purple Storybooks. Now, he or she will learn to read:
Set 2 Speed Sounds: ay ee igh ow oo oo ar or air ir ou oy
Words containing these sounds
Pink, Orange and Yellow Storybooks. Next, he or she will learn to read:
Set 3 Speed Sounds: ea oi a-e i-e o-e u-e aw are ur er ow ai oa ew ire ear ure
Words containing these sounds
Blue and Grey Storybooks.

Your child will come home everyday with the new sound card they have learnt that lesson in school. It would be fantastic if you could please support your child to practise and read the Set 1, 2 or 3 Speed Sounds additionally at home.

Book Bag Books

Your child will be bringing home a Book Bag Book to support them with their current phonics learnign and will match their phonetical bility perfectly. This book builds upon the ideas and many of the words in the Storybook he or she has just read in class all week. We have a story time every day at school so children develop a love of stories. We hope that you will do the same by reading their book bag book every night. Please continue to support your child with reading this book at home. Here are two powerpoints to support you with effective story times at home and how to listen to your child read:

Using the Set 1 Speed Sounds cards

To find out more information about teaching set 1 sounds, please enjoy the powerpoint:

Using the Set 2 and 3 Speed Sounds cards

To find out more information about teaching set 2 and 3 sounds, please look through the powerpoint:

If you would like anymore information about Read Write Inc or would like to be shown how to support your child at home, then please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Sadler (Assistant Headteacher, RWI manager and DFE Literacy Phonics Specialist), as she is always happy to help at any time.