Phonics

At Portfields, your child is taught to read using the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics programme.  Read Write Inc., developed by Ruth Miskin, provides a structured and systematic approach to teaching early reading. It is designed to create fluent readers and confident speakers. All children in EYFS and Key Stage One have explicit phonics lessons throughout their first three years at school.

What is phonics?

Phonics is a method of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully by linking phonemes (sounds) and their graphemes (written symbols).

Your child is taught how to:

·Recognise the sounds that each individual letter represents.

·Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters represent (e.g. ‘sh’, ‘ay’).

·Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word.

As your child learns to read, they will move through different stages. These are called a ‘set’. First, your child will learn to read sounds written with one letter. They will then learn to read sounds written with two and three letters (your child will call these ‘special friends’).  As they learn new sounds, they will learn to read words containing these sounds by sound-blending, e.g. s-a-t sat, sh-i-p ship, s-t-ay stay.