Read Write Inc. Phonics (also known as Ruth Miskin Literacy or RML) is a lively phonic programme that gets children reading and writing quickly!

Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn. It opens the door to all learning. At Whitehall Junior School, we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure EVERY child learns to  read as quickly as possible. We also want your child to love reading and to want to read for themselves. A love of books is vital to the enjoyment of reading. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic we acknowledge the reading gaps between children. We have began bridging gaps by teaching phonics to targeted groups of children throughout the school using the synthetics programme RML (Read Write Inc. Phonics) and RWI Fresh Start. It is a lively and rigorous programme devised by a former Head Teacher, Ruth Miskin. Children learn how to read the sounds (phonemes) in words and how these sounds can be written down (graphemes). At Whitehall Junior School we teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters using pictures and picture phrases. The children then are introduced to a character called Fred who encourages the children to blend using pure sounds. Eg. C-a-t = cat, Ch-i-p = Chip, l-igh- t = light. The children rehearse reading and spelling red words, which the  children learn by sight recognition such as ‘said’, ‘once’, ‘where’. Identifying that it has a ‘grotty’ grapheme.

As the children progress through, the phonemes become more complex and can contain two letters which are called ‘digraphs’ (sh, ch, th, ay, ar, oo) or three letters which are called ‘trigraphs’ (air, igh, ear, ure). The children learn how to segment and blend these sounds in words in both reading and writing.
 

The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the red words they know. The child’s reading book will contain tricky words. These are words that a child should know by sight as the usually do not blend together correctly, or include tricky sounds that may confuse the child. Mastering the sounds is when the children start believing that they can read and this is when their confidence flies! 

To support your child’s progression in reading, please encourage your child to sound out the letters in words and then to push the sounds together to make a whole word. Encourage your child to say the pure sounds. You can hear the sounds correctly by searching YouTube for ‘Read Write Inc. phonemes pronunciation guide’. Enjoy the experience of sharing books and stories with your child, exploring new words and their meaning.

If you would like to access free RWI resources, you can sign up to Oxford Owl. There is a link below.