The teaching of RWI happens on a daily basis in EYFS and Key Stage One continuing into Key Stage 2 through the spelling programme and where necessary as part of interventions.

Children in EYFS and KS1 were initially assessed at an entry level before being put into one of eight groups. The children are now learning and being taught at the correct level and pace for them. Children have regular assessments by the school reading leader to monitor progress and move into different groups if felt appropriate.

Staff have weekly coaching sessions to work on and develop the programme and its delivery. We also benefit from having a consultant from the RWI company to support the school. 

RWI

When using RWI to read and write the children will:-

• learn 44 sounds and corresponding letter / letter groups (called special friends) using simple picture prompts
• learn to write the letters / letter groups which represent these sounds
• learn to read and write words using Fred Talk
• read lively stories featuring words they have learned to sound out
• show they comprehend the stories by answering questions

In addition we teach children to work effectively with a partner to explain and consolidate what they are learning. This provides the teacher with opportunities to assess learning.

We group children homogeneously, according to their progress in reading rather than writing, as it is known that progress in writing will lag behind progress in reading especially for those whose motor skills are less well developed.

We make sure that children read books that are matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and common exception words. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their increasingly fluent decoding.

RWI is taught daily for up to an hour to include speed sounds, word time, reading and writing. For those children identified as needing further intervention short extra sessions are planned in addition to the main teaching session.

Speed Sounds and RWI Stages

Learning Set 1 Speed Sounds

These are the Set 1 Speed Sounds written with one letter:

m  a  s  d  t  i  n  p  g  o  c  k  u  b  f  e  l  h  r  j  v  y  w  z  x

These are the sounds written with two letters (your child will call these ‘special friends’):

sh  th  ch  qu  ng  nk  ck

Learning to Blend with Set 1 Speed Sounds

Your child is learning to read words containing Set 1 Speed Sounds by sound blending.

For example:

m-a-t mat

c-a-t cat

g-o-t got

f-i-sh fish
s-p-o-t spot

b-e-s-t best

s-p-l-a-sh splash.

Learning Set 2 Speed Sounds

These are the Set 2 Speed Sounds:

ay  ee  igh  ow (as in blow)  oo (as in zoo)

oo (as in look) ar  or  air  ir  ou (as in out)  oy

Learning Set 3 Speed Sounds

These are Set 3 Speed Sounds:

ea (as in tea)

oi (as in spoil)

a–e (as in cake)

i–e (as in smile)

o–e (as in home)

u–e (as in huge) 

aw (as in yawn)

are (as in care)

ur (as in nurse)

er  (as in letter)

ow (as in brown)

ai  (as in snail)

oa (as in goat)

ew (as in chew)

ire (as in fire)

ear (as in hear)

ure (as in pure)

Fred Talk

Children are introduced to a toy frog called Fred once they are ready to start reading words. 

Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs your child to help him read the words. Fred will say the sounds and children will read 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.

It works in a similar way with the spelling of words where children use Fred Talk and their fingers to show the number of sounds in a word before writing it down. Each sound is then checked, fixed if an error is made and then ticked.

Reading at home

We recognise the impact that reading at home can have on children’s progress in reading. Because of this, we ask that our families also commit to our high standards when reading at home. We ask that all pupils read at home on five occasions each week.

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 – 10 minutes reading at home session.

Children will have the following available to them:-

• the RWI read at school as an e-book and available online (children will receive log in details)
• the accompanying book to the one read in school - as a Book Bag Book
• those children using Accelerated Reader and selecting books from the school library will continue to do so and quiz on these when ready
• those children not yet using Accelerated Reader will continue to bring additional books home to share with family and friends