Read, Write, Inc. Teaches children to read, write and enjoy books but most importantly gives them the confidence and belief that they can do both. A quick paced, enthusiastic and inclusive approach that begins with learning the sounds that the letters of the alphabet make.

First steps…… Say the sound Read the sound Write the sound Teaching the sounds Children are taught to: Say the sound Read the sound Write the sound

First steps…… Children are taught the sound of the letter and not the name. For example: m a s d t Sounds are pure – pronounced exactly as they sound.

First steps…… In school – children will learn a new sound almost every day, revisiting old sounds at the same time. At home – sounds are followed up at home with nightly homework sheets that reinforce the sound your child has learnt that day.

Homework Sheet that relates to the sound learnt at school that day. Five minutes per evening that will really benefit your child. Involves you and other family members in your child’s learning Sent home and returned via reading folders every day.

Word Time Children will take part in “Word Time”. This involves making words with magnetic letters for reading and spelling.

Word Time Children are guided to put learnt sounds together. This will have been touched upon with “Fred Talk” Fred the frog only speaks in sounds and we have to put the sounds together to make the word. During word time this is done with sound cards and magnetic letters. This activity is repeated until the children can blend independently. Children can then put sounds together to read words!

Word Time Children are taught to spell and write words by thinking about the sounds in words and breaking them down....they will do this using Fred Fingers! Think of each sound on 1 finger, ie m a t They will eventually know the number of fingers they will need to get ready and the number of sounds needed to make/write a word.

One last tricky bit..... There are lots of words in the English language that can not be sounded out – you cant use Fred Fingers to help you to spell the word SAID s e d These are known/taught as “Red Words” “You can’t sound out Fred the Red”

Away they go! When children move on to the story books then their reading will really take off. Sounds will still be revisited in sessions and books will be discussed, read and enjoyed with partners. Confidence will rocket as we are not expecting them to read anything that is beyond their level.

Picture Books We begin to send home picture books as your child’s reading book whilst they are learning the letter sounds. These are great to encourage discussion with your child and to ask them questions to show that they have really looked at the pictures. At the front of the book are suggestions as to the type of questions to ask-but feel free to create your own! Your child may struggle with this initially or they may find this easy! If they do find it easy then they need to create their own storyline to match what they see. They have a reading record that we encourage you to sign and write any comments in. If you don’t have time to do the book, then please write that as we can then share the book in school. We ask that reading books and reading records are brought every day please.