Eastway Primary School

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Eastway Curriculum

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Developing Reading Skills through Read Write Inc at Eastway Primary

At Eastway, we want every child to become a fluent, confident reader who develops a genuine love of books and stories. Reading is at the heart of everything we do, as it opens doors to learning across the whole curriculum and beyond.

We believe this can be achieved through:

A systematic, synthetic phonics programme – Read Write Inc (RWInc)
Daily reading at home and in school to nurture a love of books
High-quality texts that inspire, challenge, and broaden children’s horizons

What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWInc) is a complete phonics and literacy programme designed to help children learn to read quickly and fluently, so they can then focus on developing comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling.

The programme is designed for children aged 4–7, but at Eastway we begin introducing RWInc in Nursery and continue teaching it beyond age 7 if children need extra support.

RWInc was developed by Ruth Miskin. You can find further information for parents here: [Ruth Miskin – Parent Information].

How will Read Write Inc be taught at Eastway?

All children are assessed regularly by our RWInc Lead Teacher to ensure they are learning at the right level. This means children are grouped with others at the same stage, enabling everyone to take part fully and make strong progress.

Nursery

When ready, children are introduced to initial sounds through short, fun five-minute sessions.

Reception
Children begin to learn how to:

Read sounds in words and recognise the different ways those sounds can be written
Blend sounds (Fred Talk) to read words
Read storybooks and non-fiction texts carefully matched to their phonic knowledge
Develop early comprehension skills by answering simple Find It and Prove It questions

Writing
Children learn to:

Form letters and letter groups using fun picture phrases
Use Fred Talk to write words
Build sentences by practising them aloud before writing them down

Talking
Children work in pairs so they can:

Answer every question
Practise each activity together
Take turns reading and talking
Build ambitious vocabulary through discussion

Year 1 and Year 2

Children continue with the same approach but move on to more complex sounds.
They read books that are carefully matched to their ability, ensuring success and challenge at the right level.
Daily RWInc phonics lessons last one hour.
Once children become fluent, confident readers, they move on to English Skills lessons, where they further develop comprehension, spelling, grammar, and writing.

The Five Key Principles of RWInc Teaching

Every RWInc session is built on five key principles:

Purpose – every activity has a clear aim that children understand
Participation – every child takes part throughout the lesson
Praise – effort and progress are celebrated to build confidence
Pace – lessons move at a lively speed so no time is wasted
Passion – teachers bring energy and enthusiasm to engage children emotionally

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

At the end of Year 1, children sit a phonics screening check. This assessment confirms whether individual children have secured the phonic knowledge needed for successful reading.

The check consists of 40 words: 20 real words and 20 ‘alien words’ (made-up words).
Each child reads the words one-to-one with their teacher.
If a child does not meet the expected standard, they will have the opportunity to re-take the check at the end of Year 2.

Set 1
Sound	Rhyme
m	Down Maisie then over the two mountains. Maisie, mountain, mountain.
a	Round the apple, down the leaf.
s	Slide around the snake
d	Round the dinosaur’s back, up his neck and down to his feet.
t	Down the tower, across the tower,
i	Down the insects body, dot for the head.
n	Down Nobby and over the net.
p	Down the plait, up and over the pirates face.
g	Round the girls face, down her hair and give her a curl
o	All around the orange
c	Curl around the caterpillar
k	Down the kangaroos body, tail and leg
u	Down and under the umbrella, up to the top and down to the puddle
b	Down the laces, over the toe and touch the heel
f	Down the stem and draw the leaves
e	Slice into the egg, go over the top, then under the egg
l	Down the long leg
h	Down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
sh	Slither down the snake, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
r	Down the robot’s back, then up and curl
j	Down his body, curl and dot
v	Down a wing, up a wing
y	Down a horn, up a horn and under the yak’s head.
w	Down, up, down, up the worm.
th	Down the tower, across the tower, then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
z	Zig-zag-zig, down the zip.
ch	Curl around the caterpillar, , then down the horse’s head to the hooves and over his back
qu	Round the queen’s head, up to her crown, down her hair and curl
x	Cross down the arm and leg and cross the other way
ng	A thing on a string
nk	I think I stink

Please do not use letter names at this early stage

Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound and then form the shape of the sound.

Learning Sounds

Before supporting your child at home, it’s useful to practise the sounds used in English. These are the building blocks children need to read and write with confidence. We will share resources and guidance with you so you can support your child in a way that matches how they are taught in school.

Step 2:

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds – the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

Long vowel sound	Set 2 Speed Sound cards Teach these first	Set 3 Speed Sound cards
ay	ay: may I play	a-e: make a cake	ai: snail in the rain
ee	ee: what can you see	ea: cup of tea	e: he me we she be
igh	igh: fly high	i-e: nice smile
ow	ow: blow the snow	o-e: phone home	oa: goat in a boat
oo	oo: poo at the zoo	u-e: huge brute	ew: chew the stew
oo	oo: look at a book
ar	ar: start the car
or	or: shut the door	aw: yawn at dawn
air	air: that’s not fair	are: share and care
ir	ir: whirl and twirl	ur: nurse for a purse	er: a better letter
ou	ou: shout it out	ow: brown cow
oy	oy: toy for a boy	oi: spoil the boy
ire	ire: fire fire!
ear	ear: hear with your ear
ure	ure: sure it’s pure?

Nonsense words (Alien words)

As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term.

Step 3

When children are able to successfully read single words, they are introduced to Ditty Books. These short texts help children practise their early reading skills. At this stage, it is important that short vowel sounds are kept clear, short, and sharp.

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read the simple ditties. They will also bring home a Book Bag Book each week for you to share together. This regular practice at home helps to build fluency and confidence. Alongside reading, children begin to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences of their own.

In every book, children will meet red and green words:

Red words are tricky words that are not easily decodable. These are introduced to challenge pupils and expand their vocabulary.
Green words are linked to the sounds children have been learning. These are fully decodable and support fluency and accuracy in reading.

Through this balance of practice, children develop both the technical skills and confidence needed to become speedy, successful readers.

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To help at home:

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Each week they will bring home a Book Bag Book linked directly to the RWInc book they have shared in school. Please share the book, talk about the pictures and encourage your child to read. Please revisit this book so your child becomes really familiar with the words and in doing so their fluency will develop. If they need to sound out a word, that is fine. Please give lots of praise!

RWI and Reading Fluency

The links below will support with the development of Reading words and sounds. Click on the links to read all the Speedy Green words.