Our Synthetic Phonics Programme
Phonics at Branton Primary School
At Branton Primary School the Synthetic Phonics Programme Read Write Inc is embedded throughout the school.
This is one of the validated systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programmes by the Government to ensure quality of teaching of phonics as part of the acquisition of reading skills for all children.
Information about Read Write Inc and how we use this scheme at Branton is set out below.
Read Write Inc at Branton
Owl Class
Owl class is our nursery and reception class. We encourage all the children to take part in our daily 15 minute phonics sessions.
In the autumn term we focus on Set 1 phonemes (sounds) from Read Write Inc. with our reception children being our main focus. We follow the RWI scheme to introduce Set 1, which is all of the single letter phonemes along with ch, sh, th, qu, ng and nk.
Our nursery children are encouraged to take part in our daily phonics session and when they are ready to, they can join in with the other aspects of our phonics teaching.
At the same time our nursery children are also being immersed in language. The updated RWI for Nursery states that "Nursery children rely on read-a-lot, talk-a-lot, and sing-a-lot nurseries!" and that is just what we do!
The phonemes are introduced in groups and at the end of each group we have a 'word time', which looks at the words we can make from the phonemes we have practiced.
Fred the frog helps us with word time, he helps us do 'Fred Talk' where we decode (sound out) the words and then blend those sounds into words.
When a child recognises all of their set 1 phonemes and they can Fred Talk those phonemes into words, we will move on to Set 2 phonemes (and then if we are ready, Set 3!).
We may revisit phonemes to make sure every child can recognise them all. We really do work each individual child and target their needs to help move them forward in their learning.
Set 2 phonemes are vowel phonemes (letters grouped into twos and threes) beginning with ay as in play. We say they are 'Special friends working together'.
Set 3 phonemes can look at different ways of writing at phonemes we have already covered and also some more tricky phonemes (so for example, we look at ai as in snail, a-e as in make alongside ay as in play.)
When they are ready all children are able to take home the phoneme practice sheets that look at both the sound that each letter shape (grapheme) makes and also how to correctly form the letter when writing.
If you have any questions please ask!
Robin Class
Robin class is our Key Stage 1 class, with children from years 1 and 2. In Key stage 1 we carry on with Read Write Inc, focusing on the children applying their phonic knowledge and being able to decode words.
Again this is targeting individual children and moving them forward in developing their reading skills.
This may mean that we need to recap on Sets 1 and 2 from Read Write Inc, or move on to Set 3.
We do daily Read Write Inc phonics sessions and also focus on writing and handwriting, using their phonic knowledge and their letter formation skills.
Note
In the second half of the summer term Year 1 children nationally take part in a Phonics Check to assess their ability in applying their phonic knowledge. a threshold score is set annually and if a child does not meet that score they will retake their phonics check in Year 2.
Read Write Inc 1-1 sessions
In support of the class teaching taking place, all children also take part in 1-1 Read Write Inc sessions at the appropriate level for their skills.
We use the banded RWI books in these sessions. These begin with Sound Blending books in Owl class and progress through the different levels from the Red Ditty Books to the more complex Blue and Grey Reading books.
1-1 RWI sessions are also used as an intervention for children needing that little extra support to move them forward in their learning.