1. Teaching Phonics at Newport Infants
Every child deserves success right from the start. We know that the sooner children learn to read, the greater their success at school. This is why we put reading at the heart of what we do.

2. How we teach your child to read and write
We use a teaching programme called Read Write Inc Phonics to teach our children to read and write
Read Write Inc Phonics depends upon children learning to read and write sounds effortlessly, so we make it simple, fun and purposeful.
Each lesson has a structured approach which supports the children and maintains a fast pace.

3. First we teach them one way to read and write the 40+ sounds in English. We use pictures to help, for example we make ‘a’ into the shape of an apple, ‘f’ into the shape of a flower. The pictures help all children, to read the sounds easily.
The sounds are in 3 sets, set 1 is the letters of the alphabet and th, ch, sh, ng, nk. Some sounds are stretchy sounds and some bouncy.

4. Set 1

5. Set 2 and 3 are digraphs (Two letters together that make one sound)

6. Children learn to read words by sound-blending using a frog called Fred. Fred says the sounds and children help him blend the sounds to read each word. We call this Fred talking.

7. Then we teach children the different spellings of the same sounds, for example, they learn that the sound ‘ay’ is written ay, a-e and ai. We use phrases to help them remember each sound for example, ay, may I play, a-e – make a cake? ai – snail in the rain

8. The Phonics Lesson
Teacher says the sound. For some sounds, we call this the ‘special friend’. Teacher says the sounds of some words, children say it back and blend together to say the word (auditory)

9. The Phonics Lesson
Teacher shows the sound or special friend card, first the picture, and say the rhyme/ditty then show the grapheme (the letter/s)

10. The Phonics Lesson
The teacher will mix the new sound or special friend into the pack of previously taught sounds / special friends. Children review them, saying them out loud.

11. The Phonics Lesson Teacher puts 2 /3 sounds together eg. c + a + t
Children say the sounds looking at the sound buttons underneath the letters, and blend together to read the word when the teacher sweeps her pointer across the 3 sounds to read cat.
Children will practice blending using magnetic letters / sound cards, so they can slide the sounds they need to make a word
Once children are confident blending 3 sounds, they will begin to read green words, using fred talking and fred in your head

12. The Phonics Lesson
Once set 1 words have been learnt and children are blending accurately, we follow this structure for the lesson:
We then look at words with the new sound in them. These are on green cards and have dots and sliders under the letters to show if it is one letter, one sound (a) or two letters, one sound (such as ay). The children will read 4-6 words, fred talking out loud.

14. The Phonics Lesson
Next we review some words that have been previously taught. Children ‘fred talk’ these in their head then say the word on the signal.
The next set of words are again words previously taught but that children should now be reading fluently. We call this ‘super speedy reading’
Finally and perhaps the most important part of the lesson, is reading ‘nonsense words’. These contain the special friend / sound from the lesson, and the teacher / teaching assistants can use this an assessment of how well the children have grasped the new sound, applying it to a nonsense word shows us if they have remembered the sound.

15. The Phonics Lesson

16. The Phonics Lesson
All of the lesson so far has taken place on the carpet.
The next part of the lesson moves to the tables so children can write and apply the sounds they have been learning
For spelling, children use their ‘Fred fingers’ to pinch the sounds they hear as they say the word
eg. Count is c ou n t so 4 fred fingers.
Again they will write some words using the new sound taught and review some previously taught.
Repetition and review is extremely important for embedding the sounds
Throughout the lesson, the teacher and teaching assistants keep a careful watch over the class and see who is confident, who needs a little more help etc so that we can target our support
We use lots of praise throughout and have lots of phrases. We often tell children to give themselves a 1,2,3, well done me! Or one of the favourites, the ketchup clap!!

17. Does Read, Write, Inc work for all children?
As with all our learning, we find children don’t all progress at the same rate.
With Read, Write, Inc we try to keep the class working together as much as possible. If we see children struggling or not picking up the sounds as quickly, we offer extra interventions or a one to one programme to support them.
As the year goes on, we may also split into different groups across the year so your child may be taught phonics by a different teacher.

18. Reading phonics books
Teachers at Newport Infants choose a phonics book that is appropriate to the level your child is working on. They should be able to read it without too much trouble, segmenting and blending sounds that they are being taught. The more they read this book, the more confident they will become. We want the children to feel successful reading this and thus, promoting them as a successful reader.
Children may also have another book which may be a little harder and is given more to develop comprehension skills. The books have a bit more in them for you to discuss together.