At Hall Meadow we use Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their Literacy development.  Miss Pyper is our Read Write Inc lead teacher, so if you have questions about RWI, contact school who can refer you to her. 

 At Hall Meadow Primary School we aim for all our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading. 

Children who read regularly or are read to regularly have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds! 

More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent life-long learners. 

We can achieve this together through: 

• Read Write Inc, a program to help to your child read at school 

• Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily, at home and at school 

• Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home 

 

Regular assessments help to identify children who are making consistent progress and they are placed in a group where the books may be a bit more challenging.  On the other hand, regular assessments also help identify children who may need extra help.  This is provided on a 1:1 basis, at least three times a week. 

A considerable amount of time and money has been invested in the training of teacher and teaching assistants alike.  The training is ongoing and led by Mrs Bodman-Knight, our Head of School. 

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions as taken from the Teacher Handbook:   

1. Participation – As they are in small groups, children participate fully in every session. They are able to maintain high levels of concentration and they do not miss key elements of the teaching. 

2. Praise - Children work together as partners. They take turns to teach and praise each other. They are motivated by praise from their teachers and teaching assistants. 

3. Pace - Sessions never drag. The lively pace keeps every child fully engaged and on task. 

4. Purpose - Every instructor has been trained in Read Write Inc. methods. They know the purpose of each activity, and how it leads into the next. 

5. Passion - Instructors, too, become passionate about their teaching as they see the children enjoying the progress they are making. 

Fred Talk 

We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’, etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily. 

At school we use a toy called Fred who is an expert on sounding out words! We call it, ‘Fred Talk’, for example: m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck. 

This video shows how to blend sounds with Fred. 

Parent video: Sound blending (youtube.com) 

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 1 phonics screening check in the summer term. 

Children will be introduced to Ditty books when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp: 

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences. 

Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable. 

How can I help my child? 

The Read Write Inc website has lots of information to help support reading at home: 

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/parents/