Phonics and Early Reading
At Harris Primary Academy Mayflower our aim is for all children to become fluent, confident readers.
Reading will give your child the tools to become an independent life-long learner.
We achieve this by:
- Teaching reading using Read Write Inc.
- Reading a range of storybooks daily to encourage a love of reading
At Mayflower we teach Read Write Inc. (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their reading and writing.
What is RWI?
RWI is a literacy programme which teaches all children to learn to read fluently.
At first, children learn to read ‘sounds’ and then learn how to blend those sounds together to read a word.
Once they can read words, they read carefully matched Storybooks containing words they know.
Their speed and fluency increases on subsequent reads of the book.
All children are assessed half termly by our RWI leader so children are always learning to read at the right stage for them.
Children are re-grouped each half term.
How can I help at home?
Use pure sounds
We use pure sounds (‘mmm’ not ’muh’,’sss’ not ‘suh’, etc.). This helps children to blend the sounds into words more easily.
Click the link below to hear how to pronounce sounds correctly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCI2mu7URBc
Please do not use letter names at this early stage.
Sound out words using ‘Fred Talk’
We use a puppet called Fred who only talks in sounds. We call it ‘Fred Talk’.
E.g. m-o-p (mop), c-a-t (cat), m-a-n (man).
Use Fred Talk throughout the day at home eg. ‘it’s time for l-u-n-ch… lunch!’
The ‘Fred Talk’ document is attached below.
Use the handwriting phrases
For each letter, there is a handwriting phrase. Use the handwriting phrase to support your child with their letter formation when writing.
The Handwriting phrases document is attached below.
Practice at home
Your class teacher will send home links to Virtual lessons.
Please follow these links (which may come in the form of QR codes) and encourage your child to join in.
The more times they access the lessons, the better! Learning to read can be hard, but the more practice a child has, the easier it will become.
Listening to your child reading
Once your child knows how to read the initial sounds and can blend these sounds into words, they will bring books home.
Encourage them to read the book to you using ‘Fred Talk’. Your child will have read these books in school, so please don’t worry if they are reading the book easily. We want them to show off their reading to you at home!
The ‘Listening to your child read’ document is attached below.
Reading to your child
We inspire a love of reading in our children by reading to them.
Read a wide range of stories daily. Make this a special time for you and your child to bond over books.
The ‘Reading stories to your child’ document is attached below.
FAQs
‘Parent FAQs’ doc link
