Phonics at Awbridge

At Awbridge, we believe that reading and writing skills form the foundations for much of the learning we do throughout the school.

From the start of Reception, children follow the Read Write Inc. phonics program, which teaches them to recognise sounds and to blend them together in order to read new words.

Read Write Inc. is taught every day in Reception and Year 1, with children learning to become fluent readers.  The aim is also to increase children's confidence and enjoyment in reading, inspiring them to continue to practise reading outside of our Read Write Inc. sessions.  Children will bring home a 'Book Bag Book' to practise sounds they have been learning in order to develop fluency.

Through using their 'Fred fingers' children are also taught to segment (break up) the words into sounds when they are trying to spell. Some tricky words (known as 'red words') like 'they' and 'were' cannot be broken up into individual sounds and so through Read Write Inc. children are gradually introduced to these words and given regular chances to practise reading them.

In addition, children are given carefully matching ‘book bag’ books that provide them with opportunities to practise reading any new sounds in context.

In Read Write Inc. there are also plenty of opportunities to practise writing; 'Hold a sentence' - where children are told a sentence to remember and spell, editing - where children look out for deliberate spelling and punctuation errors in a passage related to the book they are reading,  composition opportunities - where children write their own pieces linked to the book they are reading. Here the children have the opportunity to write what story characters might say, write instructions, design their own poems, make notes on something they have read, and practise many other forms of writing.