Holy Family Catholic Primary School
We are a “Get Reading. Keep Reading. Change Everything.” school.
We use the highly successful Read Write Inc. phonics programme to teach our children to read, write and spell.
Ruth Miskin Training recognise us for teaching the Read Write Inc. programmes with fidelity and passion – we know what it takes to make literacy pleasurable and rewarding for our children.
This badge recognises that we:
- Raise standards in reading and writing for our children
- Are all expertly trained by Ruth Miskin Training – including our headteacher
- Gain the latest programme updates through regular visits from our Ruth Miskin trainer
- Release our reading leaders to ensure our high standards are maintained.
Read, Write, Inc. at Holy Family
Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.
We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read.
How will my child be taught to read?
We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Ask them to show you what these are.
The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’. These are words where one part of the word is trying to trick the children. We teach them to sound the word out (without looking at it) then look at the word and spot the part that is trying to trick us. We call this the ‘grotty grapheme’.
The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. that they can read and this does wonders for their confidence.
They start thinking that they can read and this does wonders for their confidence.
The teachers read to the children, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.
How will I know how well my child is doing?
We will always let you know how well your child is doing.
We use various ways to find out how the children are getting on in reading. We assess all the children each half term. We assess them on how accurately they can read words and how fluently. We use the information to decide what reading group your child should be in. Your child will work with children who are at the same reading level as him or her. Children will move to a different group if they are making faster progress than the others. Your child will have one-to-one support if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up.
In the summer term, the government asks us to do a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. This gives us extra information about their progress. We will talk to you about how well your child has done, and especially if we have any worries at all.
How long will it take to learn to read well?
Our aim is for most children to be finished RWI by the end of year 1 or shortly after they start year 2. They will then start on our Literacy and Language programme.
What can I do to help?
Your child will bring home a ‘Floppy Copy’ of the book they have been working on in school. This book will already have been read at least three times in school so your child will already be quite fluent at reading it. Please practise for at least 10 minutes every day at home. Make sure you record this practise in your child’s reading record. At the beginning of the book is a chart with a list of sounds. The sounds with a circle on are the sounds that are important for your child to know to read that particular book fluently.
At the back of each book are a list of ‘speed words’, please help your child to get faster and faster at reading these words. This will really help with their fluency. Children need to be able to read at a pace of 100 words a minute before they start on Literacy and Language.
Does it matter if my child misses a lesson or two?
It matters a lot if your child misses school. RWI happens every single day. Teaching is very systematic, so even one missed lesson means that your child has not learnt something that they need to know to be a good reader.
What if he or she finds it difficult to learn to read?
We want children to learn to read, however long it takes us to teach them. We will find out very quickly if your child is finding reading difficult. First, we move children to a different group, so that we can make sure that they have learnt what they need to know. If they still struggle, we give them extra time with an adult, on their own. These adults are specially trained to support these children. Your child will still be in the same group with the other children and won’t miss out on any of the class lessons.
Some children take a bit longer to learn to put sounds together to read a word, e.g. c-a-t to make the word ‘cat’.
My child has difficulty pronouncing some sounds. Will this stop him learning to read through phonics?
This isn’t a problem for learning to read as long as we know what sound the child is trying to say. This is not something to worry about. Many children have a few sounds that they can hear clearly but find it difficult to say, particularly the l-sound, r-sound, w-sound, th-sound, s-sound, sh-sound and j-sound. Often they say a t-sound for the c-sound; "tttssh" for the s-sound; "w" for the r-sound and "r" for the l-sound. You can help your child by encouraging him or her to look at your mouth when you say the sound. They can easily learn to read, even if they find one or two sounds difficult to say.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns. We are here to help.
Watch this video it will show you how to pronounce all sounds correctly.
This link will take you to the parents page on Ruth Miskin website
