Phonics & Spelling

At Brookhouse Primary School, we strive to teach children to read and write effectively and quickly. The ability to efficiently decode is essential and therefore our aim is to teach core skills of segmenting and blending through the systematic teaching of phonics. We want children to understand the relationship between sounds and letters and know that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words. Our aim is for children to make sustained progress in learning to read fluently and write with confidence in an enjoyable way. These fundamental skills not only hold the key to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. By the time pupils reach Year 2, they will have the ability to efficiently decode, read fluently and write with confidence.

Using Read Write Inc Phonics pupils will:

• develop their vocabulary through role play and discussion
• develop speaking and listening skills
• learn the grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) in a clear sequence from the simple alphabetic code, to phonemes with alternative graphemes
• learn to decode words by identifying the graphemes and blending the phonemes using Fred Talk (eg. c-a-t)

• learn to spell words by segmenting them into phonemes
• make phonetically plausible attempts to spell words correctly
• write simple sentences with confidence
• select the correct GPC for words that contain sounds that have more than one GPC (eg. ay, ai, a-e)
• read red words and common exception words quickly and correctly
• spell red words and common exception words accurately

How you can help at home:

• Read with your child every night encouraging them to Fred Talk when they come across a difficult word
• Practise the sounds at home
• Make sure that they attend school every day as this will help your child to make the most progress
• Visit the Parents section of the RWI website for more tips, techniques and helpful hints (see 'Guidance for Parents' below)

If you need further advice on how best to help your child, please make an appointment to speak with Mrs May or your class teacher who will be happy to meet with you.