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04/04/25

Year 4 have celebrated the end of their geography learning with Brazil Day! They have made carnival masks, done some Samba dancing and made brigadeiro (chocolate truffles). pic.twitter.com/a8TUEtqy3M

04/04/25

Well done to Tristan in Chestnut class who received the “Player of the Week” trophy for his achievements in football last weekend! pic.twitter.com/pH7cwlK5fR

04/04/25

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their showcase on Wednesday, reciting poetry from the book 100 Brilliant Poems for Children! pic.twitter.com/qXbxDq3akt

03/04/25

Ali in Willow class has spent some time at home creating a representation of what happened to houses during The Great Fire of London! He was also able to share some wonderful facts such as the date of the fire starting. pic.twitter.com/NJFL0mDsKq

01/04/25

Year 5 had a lovely netball showcase session this afternoon. Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend. pic.twitter.com/TrGCIhzNa8

01/04/25

Four Year 5 children enjoyed a visit to for an exciting ambition event run by Mr Still. We loved all of the problem solving games! pic.twitter.com/gZJgP74frW

31/03/25

Ash class enjoyed finishing their afternoon by reading for pleasure. Thank you for the kind donation of the tyres, which the children found surprisingly very comfy! pic.twitter.com/DGmRUlxl0D

31/03/25

Ash class enjoyed their time this afternoon reading for pleasure. Thank you to those who donated the tyres, which the children found very surprisingly very comfy! pic.twitter.com/5VZrb1PhZC

31/03/25

Children had a brilliant time at the Netball Skills event this week. KS1 developed their throwing and catching skills, while LKS2 looked at game rules and tactics and UKS2 got through to the quarter finals in their tournament in the afternoon! 🏐 pic.twitter.com/dcsDMp09m4

28/03/25

Thank you to the very generous parents who gifted Mrs Choudhury with a special gift to celebrate Eid. pic.twitter.com/rk5Y6ec0qQ

28/03/25

Amal in Willow class has completed a wonderful project all about animal adaptations and climate change at home. She has learned some amazing information and facts that she was then able to share with the class! pic.twitter.com/YxrGchezCI

28/03/25

Year 2 had a fantastic parent showcase session and sewed the most creative finger puppets for their DT final outcome! pic.twitter.com/7l1bA8eO5Q

26/03/25

Raluka, in Willow Class spent time at home making a Tudor house following our history learning on The Great Fire of London. In D.T., we have also looked at architectural features of Tudor houses - can you name any? pic.twitter.com/7Dg4kbGSQj

26/03/25

Year 4 had a fantastic time at Kent County Showground performing their spy dance to a full audience of PE teachers across Kent. They even got a breakdancing and football trick show from and finished the day with a water fight! Well done Birch Class dance 🕺 pic.twitter.com/bu8exlwCKd

26/03/25

Year 6 have completed some excellent diagrams of the heart and written about its functions in Science. pic.twitter.com/Dan2QJA2CC

26/03/25

Four of our budding authors met earlier this week to learn about how to improve their writing. They had a very inspiring morning. Thank you to for hosting. pic.twitter.com/hQ03GOsf1S

24/03/25

Willow class had a wonderful time today as Bockett’s farm. We were able to learn a lot of information about horses, see newly born piglets, ride on a tractor, touch a variety of small animals, and even became recycling superstars! Thank you , we had the best day! pic.twitter.com/dZWDKAWVgF

24/03/25

We have thoroughly enjoyed every second of our trip to ! We’ve learned about the names of male, female and young animals and even got a ride on a tractor! pic.twitter.com/YkpOEAU5eU

24/03/25

Eddie in Year 2 has been telling us all about the Rugby Tournament he took part in over the weekend. Well done Eddie! 🏉 If you have taken part in any exciting sporting events outside of school, we would love to hear about it! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/PDLgSVRR6W

21/03/25

Well done to our Year 4 mathematicians this week who came 3rd in The VIAT Maths Challenge! 🥉 pic.twitter.com/PsFTQedSCY

21/03/25

KS2 enjoying the sunshine at lunchtime today. pic.twitter.com/3YWEiUSsrI

21/03/25

Year 1 had a wonderful time at their phonics parent showcase. They were able to show their fantastic phonics knowledge and engage in some fun activities such as phonics snakes and ladders! pic.twitter.com/kGrhpdqhWn

21/03/25

Year 6 were lucky enough to experience a heart dissection workshop (linking to our current science topic, and novel - Pig Heart Boy) with Dr Crouch - and three of his Sixth Form students - from Invicta Grammar School. pic.twitter.com/GI5b7CoAn1

20/03/25

Thanks to Lynn’s Little Bookshop for our fabulous competition prize! pic.twitter.com/Vwb9923Uui

18/03/25

Well done to some of our Year 4 mathematicians for competing in the VIPS maths competition. pic.twitter.com/Kn4mp7F5vo

Early Reading - Read Write Inc. (RWI)

RWI School 2024 Stamp

Phonics - Read Write Inc. (RWI)

At Valley Invicta Primary School at Aylesford, we use Read Write Inc. (RWI), an inclusive synthetic phonic programme to teach our children to read, to write and to spell. We have adopted this as our whole school approach as the programme facilitates a graduated and tailored approach to learning basic sounds and letter formation before advancing to more complex sounds and reading for comprehension.  The programme moves with integrity from learning to read to reading to learn.

RWI sessions occur each day as the continuity and pace of the programme is key to accelerating the progress of children’s reading development. This method of phonics teaching is both systematic and repetitive in order to embed learning; the programme also offers plenty of opportunities for fun based, interactive learning using drama, role play and props to engage with and to enjoy texts and stories. The children work in small groups according to their confidence and competence. These groups are reconfigured on a regular basis in order to match the pace and the progress of each child; this reconfiguration also allows Class Teachers to identify where 1:1 interventions may be required in order to meet the expectations of both the Phonics Check and the end of Key Stage 1.

Aims and Objectives

The overarching objectives of the RWI programme are to teach pupils to:

  • apply the skill of blending phonemes in order to read words.
  • segment words into their constituent phonemes in order to spell words.
  • learn that blending and segmenting words are reversible processes.
  • read high frequency words that do not conform to regular phonic patterns.
  • read texts and words that are within their phonic capabilities as early as possible.
  • decode texts effortlessly so that their focus can be used on reading to learn (comprehension)
  • spell effortlessly so that their focus can be directed towards the composition of their writing

Read Write Inc. Phonics 

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. Phonics, 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.

At Valley Invicta Primary School at Aylesford we use Read Write Inc. Phonics (RWI) to give your child the best possible start with their literacy.  Mrs Kindred is our Early Reading Lead and Mrs Marchant is our Reading Champion, so if you have questions about RWI, please contact them. Please take the time to read the information as it will provide invaluable information as to how you can help and support your child in reading.

Read Write Inc - a  video guide for parents

​What is Read Write Inc?

Read Write Inc (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which helps all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, we will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading.

RWI was developed by Ruth Miskin and more information on this can be found at https://ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/.

How will RWI be taught?

In Reception, children will be introduced to the initial sounds in short sessions, all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

Reading

The children:

  • learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
  • learn to read words using Fred talk and sound blending
  • read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
  • work well with partners
  • develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions

Writing

The children:

  • learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
  • learn to write words by using Fred Talk*
  • learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write

RWI Sound Powerpoints

Talking

The children work in pairs so that they:

  • answer every question
  • practise every activity with their partner
  • take turns in talking and reading to each other
  • develop ambitious vocabulary

Year 1 and Year 2 children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for one hour. 

Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions

Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children, so they know the one thing they should be thinking about

Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning

Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability

Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning

Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.

Key Skills

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.

Fred

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

The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred 

Blending with Fred 

Key Skills - Step 1

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.  

Set 1

Click here for the top ten tips and help with how to pronounce sounds correctly.

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

Set 1 pic

Key Skills - 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.

Set 2

Nonsense Words (Alien Words)

Nonsense 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.

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check will take place in June.

This check simply identifies the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.

Key Skills - Step 3

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short books will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. 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.

Step 3 Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.

What is the Phonics Screening Check?

The national Phonics Screening Check was introduced in 2012 to all Year 1 pupils. It is a short, statutory assessment to ensure that children are making sufficient progress in the phonics skills to read words and are on track to become fluent readers who can enjoy reading for pleasure and for learning.

Useful websites for parents

Your child will start to bring books home when they are confident readers. Please help them to read and give lots of praise! If you have any other questions about RWI, please see your child's class teacher.

Please find a list of websites that you may find useful in helping you and your child to learn about phonics. Games and fun activity websites are also included.

Jolly Learning

Phonics Play

BBC Bitesize

ICT Games

Starfall

How to blend

For further information please visit the Read Write Inc website.