Phonics at Sellincourt
Phonics at Sellincourt
Please click here to see our Phonics Screening Check Guide for Parents
At Sellincourt, we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading. Reading opens the door to learning. A child who reads a lot will become a good reader. A good reader will be able to read material that is more challenging. A child who can read material that is more challenging is a child who will learn. The more a child learns, the more he or she will want to find out.
Here at Sellincourt Primary School, we use the Read Write Inc. (RWI) programme to get children off to a flying start with their English. RWI is a comprehensive literacy programme, weaving decoding, comprehension, writing and spelling together seamlessly.
For more information on RWI, please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjlPILhk7bQ&list=PLDe74j1F52zSCiOMSn3zQDSzgu9TrbQ1c&index=6
How we teach phonics
The children are assessed regularly and grouped according to their phonics needs. All staff at Sellincourt are fully trained to deliver the RWI programme. This ensures all children receive high quality phonics sessions with all staff using a consistent approach to routines and language.
Blending
Fred the Frog plays an important role in our Read Write Inc. lessons. Fred is only able to speak in sounds, not whole words. We call this Fred Talk. For example, Fred would say m-a – t we would say mat. Fred talk helps children read unfamiliar words by pronouncing each sound in the word one at a time. Children can start blending sounds into words as soon as they know a small group of letters well.
The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_Q
How to help at home:
Spelling with your Fred Fingers
Children are taught to use their fingers to help them write words. The children say the word aloud and break it down into its individual sounds. If a word has 3 sounds, children hold up 3 fingers, 4 sounds 4 fingers etc. Children then pinch each finger as they say the sounds needed in the word then they write the letters that represent each sound.
The following is an example of how to use Fred Fingers when spelling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=absSgYIPCns
Order of teaching sounds
In Read Write Inc. phonics, the individual sounds are called ‘speed sounds’ – because we want your child to read them effortlessly.
- Set 1
- o Set 1 sounds are the initial letter sounds. They are taught in the following order. m, a, s, d, t, i, n, p, g, o, c, k, u, b, f, e, l, h, sh, r, j, v, y, w, th, z, ch, qu, x, ng, nk
- Set 2
- o There are 12 Set 2 ‘speed sounds’ that are made up of two or three letters which represent just one sound, e.g. ay as in play, ee as in tree and igh as in high. Every speed sound has a list of green words linked to it, so your child can ‘sound out’ and ‘sound blend’ words containing the new speed sound they have just learnt, for example s-p-r-ay = spray.
- Set 3
- o When learning their Set 3 speed sounds, they will be taught that there are more ways in which the same sounds are written, e.g. ee as in tree and ea as in tea.
Click the link below to hear how to pronounce the sounds correctly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q&list=PLDe74j1F52zSCiOMSn3zQDSzgu9TrbQ1c&index=4
How to help at home:
Set 1 – 3 worksheets pdf links
Word Time
As soon as children have learnt a few initial letter sounds, they begin to learn to blend the sounds together to read real words in a Word Time session. Each word time session involves oral blending of known sounds before they are shown the words written down on green cards. Children practice Fred talking the words until they become able to read them on sight.
They also learn to read ‘tricky’ (red words) on sight such as ‘come,’ ‘was,’ ‘said’ and ‘you’. These are words where one part of the word is trying to trick the children. We teach them to look at the word and spot the part that is trying to trick us.
Story time books
The next stage of the Read Write Inc. scheme is for children to read storybooks that are closely matched to their developing phonic knowledge. The storybooks consists of green words linked to the sounds they have been learning, red word (words that are not decodable) and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. After children have practiced these words individually, they are prepared to see them in context in the story. These books are then sent home to enable children to practice further.
How to help at home:
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-pupils/pupil-home?current_page=rwipupils_ebook_pupils
Username: sellincourt
Password: phonics
Phonics Screening Check
As children build up their knowledge of sounds they are able to apply their decoding skills to any unfamiliar word may it be real or nonsense. During lessons each day children will practice their decoding skills by sounding out the letters in ‘Alien words’. This is an important part of the Phonics Screening Check, which children complete at the end of year 1.
For more information on the Phonics Screening Check, please click the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbKGLJPp6ww&list=PLDe74j1F52zSCiOMSn3zQDSzgu9TrbQ1c&index=10
How to help at home:
Phonics Screening Check practice papers pdfs link