Phonics is taught using the Read, Write Inc programme. This programme teaches phonics in a systematic, synthetic way. RWI promotes speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending skills. A typical phonics session follows a set structure: Revisit and Review (Speed Sounds), Teach (Introduce a new phoneme/special friends), Practise and Apply. As part of the RWI programme, the pupils will learn “red” words that do not follow phonetic patterns and must be learned individually. Once children are working at Red Ditty Level, they are introduced to reading books.
Pupils typically revisit the same phonemes and graphemes many times to that they become embedded. We understand that to progress in reading, children need to read with fluency otherwise their working memory will be overloaded and this will impact on their ability to derive meaning from the text. Our pupils need to become automatic in their recognition of phonemes so that they can decode words at speed accurately. Teachers will provide pupils with various opportunities to revisit and reinforce this learning throughout the school day.