Phonics

Phonics at Tudor Primary School follows the Read Write Inc phonics program. Phonics is the systematic teaching of all the common sounds in the English language (RWI calls these the Speed Sounds). Children are taught to recognise the sounds and to put them together (‘sound blend’ them) into words for reading

Children are taught one way of representing the 44 main sounds of English first, and then go on to learn the alternative spellings later on.

When teaching the letter sounds, it is important to remember to keep them very ‘pure’ and distinct, to help with sound-blending later on. To enable your child to gain confidence in reading, they should only be asked to read words containing letter sounds they know securely

Read Write Inc. introduces the simple Speed Sounds (one sound, one grapheme) with Speed Sounds Set 1 and Set 2. They then learn more ways of writing the same sounds with the complex Speed Sounds Set 3. Children are taught letter names before moving on to Speed Sounds Set 3

Once children know the first set of Speed Sounds, they are ready to read the first Storybooks

In Nursery Phonics is taught through whole class teaching input and small group activities. In Reception the children are taught in whole class groups before moving to groups based on their phonics knowledge. As we progress into Year 1 and 2, the teaching of phonics is organised into groups depending on children’s prior phonics knowledge, and looking at where individual’s need challenge or support. Where extra intervention is necessary, this is provided for children throughout Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The children complete the speed sound and the story book part of the lesson each day. They read the book for three days in school and then read the book at home on Oxford Owl and well as taking a levelled reading book home.

Speed Sounds Set 1

(RWI Home Phonics Flashcards Set 1 – Green Box)

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

School Books – Red Ditty Books, Green Set 1, Purple Set 2

Home Books – Red Level 1, Green Level 2, Purple Level

Speed Sounds Set 2

(RWI More Home Phonics Flashcards Set 2 – Yellow Box

ay – ee – igh – ow – oo – oo – ar – or – air – ir – ou – o

School Books – Pink Set 3, Orange Set 4

Home books – Pink Level 4

Speed Sounds Set 3

(RWI More Home Phonics Flashcards Set 2 – Yellow Box

a-e – ea – i-e – o-e – u-e – aw – are – ur – er – ow – ai – oa – ew – ire – ear – ure – tious – tio

School Books – Yellow Set 5, Blue Set 6, Grey Set

Speed Sounds Set 1

Speed Sounds Set 2

Speed Sounds Set 3

(Common alternative spellings for sounds)

Reading

At Tudor Court Primary School, reading is at the forefront of school life. All children have the opportunity to be fluent, confident readers who are able to successfully understand and comprehend a variety of texts. We work hard to develop in our children the love of reading, to have a good knowledge of a range of authors and be able to understand more about the world through the knowledge they gain from texts. We expect children to be able to read fluently and with confidence in all areas of the curriculum to prepare them for their future education. In addition to daily lessons in reading, children are given the opportunity to hear an expert read aloud to them during our DEAR times. We understand the importance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills, and so we want to encourage a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to understand how to enhance the skills being taught in school through good quality texts.

Writing

Writing is a key element to all of our curriculum at Tudor Court Primary School. We intend children to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the writing process and this is demonstrated in all subjects and topics linked to our bespoke curriculum. We aim to create writers who can re-read, edit and improve their own writing and enable children to demonstrate the technicalities of the English language through the correct use of grammar, punctuation and spelling.

We have high expectations for presentation and encourage children to take pride in their writing and their ideas – a whole school approach to cursive handwriting sets the basis for this.

For the 2021/2022 academic year, we have adopted “The Write Stuff” by Jane Considine to bring clarity to the mechanics of writing across the whole school. This was after very successful trials in the 2020/2021 school year in Year 2 and Year 6. “The Write Stuff” follows a method called “Sentence Stacking” which refers to the fact that sentences are stacked together and organised to engage children with short, intensive moments of learning that they can then immediately apply to their own writing. An individual lesson is based on a sentence model, broken in to three chunks:

1. Initiate section – a stimulus to capture the children’s imagination and set up a sentence.

2. Model section – the teacher close models a sentence that outlines clear writing features and techniques.

3. Enable section – the children write their sentence, following the model.

This approach also reinforces grammar through the use of:

• The FANTASTICs which summarise the ideas of writing
• The GRAMMARISTICs is a classroom tool that enables the teacher to drive key grammar messages.
• The BOOMTASTICs which helps children capture 10 ways of adding drama and poetic devices to writing in a vivid visual