Phonics at Sherburn Hungate Primary School

The Department for Education strongly recommend the use of synthetic phonics when teaching early literacy skills to children. Synthetic phonics is simply the ability to convert a letter or letter group into sounds that are then blended together into a word.

At Sherburn Hungate Primary School, we use the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to get children off to a flying start with their English. RWI Phonics is a structured programme, designed to ensure all children learn to read accurately and fluently. It is a method of learning based upon letter sounds and phonics, and we use it to aid children in their reading and writing.

Children learn the English alphabetic code: first they learn one way to read the 40+ sounds and blend these sounds into words, then learn to read the same sounds with alternative graphemes.

They experience success from the very beginning. Lively phonic books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words and, as children re-read the stories, their fluency increases.

The children are assessed regularly and grouped according to their ability. They work daily with a RWI trained teacher or teaching assistant.

Click here to download the Read, Write, Inc. Pure Sounds Guide.

WHEN USING READ, WRITE, INC. TO READ, CHILDREN WILL:

• Learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letter/letter groups using simple prompts
• Learn to read words using sound blending (Fred talk)
• Read lively stories featuring words they have learnt to sound out
• Show that they comprehend the stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' questions

WHEN USING READ, WRITE, INC. TO WRITE, CHILDREN WILL:

• Learn to write the letter/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds
• Learn to write words by saying the sounds and graphemes (Fred fingers)

WHEN USING RWI THE CHILDREN WILL ALSO WORK IN PAIRS:

• To answer questions
• To take turns talking and listening to each other
• To give positive praise to each other