At Bollinbrook CE we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give children the best possible start with their literacy. We have put together a guide to how the RWI programme works together with some useful links.
Mrs Grindey is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her. Please take the time to read the attached information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in their phonics.
Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, we will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their phonics and reading.
RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at
All children are assessed regularly by our RWI lead teacher so they work with children at the same level. This allows complete participation in lessons and ensures teaching is tailored to their specific needs.
In Early years all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. When they are ready, they will then begin to read and write simple words within books.
Reading
The children:
Writing
The children:
Talking
The children work in pairs so that they:
Children follow the same format as EYFS but will learn more sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for 30 minutes and are lead by a team of RWI trained members of staff to provide consistency for all children.
Reading
The children:
Writing
The children:
Talking
The children work in pairs so that they:
Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about
Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning
Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability
Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning
Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.
We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that children will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school we use a puppet called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! We call it, ‘Fred Talk’. E.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred.
Set 1 Sounds are taught in a specific order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.
Click here to find out how to pronounce the ‘pure’ sounds.
Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.
The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2, they are taught Set 3 Sounds.
Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to
help them become speedy readers.
Red words – words that are not easily decodable (common exception words).
Storybook green words – words that are linked to the sounds they have been learning and linked to the theme of the storybook. Children practise reading these words by decoding them and explore their meaning within lessons.
Speedy green words – high frequency words that are found in lots of st
ories. Children practise reading the words at speed so they can read them in stories without sounding out each word.
As well as learning to read and blend real words children have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills to 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).
Children move through the story books in a set order to ensure the books they are reading match their sound knowledge:
Sound blending, Ditty photocopies, Red, Green, Purple, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Grey
The children take home ‘RWI book bag books’ that match these colours too.
Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Please help them to read and give lots of praise! Remember you can share the enjoyment of reading with your child using a variety of picture and story books at home.
Please read the same book several times with your child, at least 3 times. This helps them develop different skills each time they read it: