Phonics
At St Margaret’s, we aim for all of our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading.
Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners. We can achieve this together through:
- Read Write Inc – a program to help to your child read at school
- Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school
- Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home
At St Margaret’s, we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.
How will RWI be taught?
All children are assessed regularly by our RWI teachers they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons.
What is Fred talk?
We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs your child to help him read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word. For example, Fred will say the sounds c–a–t, and children will say the word cat. This is Fred Talk: sounding out the word.
The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred:
What are nonsense words (Alien words)?
As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These are made up of the sounds the children are learning e.g. d-u-t (dut), d-oi-n (doin), h-e-sh (hesh).
Year One Phonics Screening
The phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. The check will be made up of real words and alien words. It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills.
Children who have not met the appropriate standard will be supported in order to retake the check in Year Two.
How can I help at home?
- Read daily with your child, pick out sounds in their stories, encourage them to sound out ‘Fred talk’ if they get stuck.
- Words they can’t sound out are called ‘red’ words, eg: said. Children just need to learn to recognise these with your help.
- Play sound games, fastest finger to the sound. Encourage your child to teach you the rhymes that go with the sounds.
- Fred talk: “Go and get your c-oa-t.”
- Use the website: www.phonicsplay.co.uk there are interactive games to practice the sounds the children are learning in school. Just choose the free ones, no need to subscribe.
- Make up ‘alien words’ with your child for fun, children love these, they could draw their own aliens to go with the words.
- Use the Oxford Owl website for free reading book resources! https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-site/find-a-book/library-page?view=image&series=Read+Write+Inc.
Additional Resources for Home Learning