Read, Right Inc

[HansHoblein]

My reception child is using read write inc phonics scheme. She brings home Oxford Owl books.

Are there any reception teachers (or parents) who can help me work out if she's where she should be. I'm taking averages really, I appreciate all children are different.

So there are ten levels in each colour band.
She is on green level 1.

How long would you expect a child to be on a level before they move along? And is green level 1 about right for the point in reception?

I really don't know much about these schemes and find it confusing to know if she's doing OK

Many thanks

I'm a teacher and Read Write Inc trained. I can try to help. Is she bringing home RWI reading books? What colour RWI group is she in at school?

Thank you so much. She brings home one book a week - green level 1.
I have no idea what level or colour she reads at school. Is it not normally the same?

Does that sound about average for may I'm reception?

She was 5 in December if that makes any difference

She is absolutely where she should be.

They're generally expected to finish the scheme by the end of year two on grey books. 10 levels and so she will roughly progress through 2/3 stages per year.

Any more questions just shout. Reception teacher and phonics leader here.

Thank you!! So they would potentially stay on a level for 4 to 6 months?

In general terms yes, however we find as they progress through the levels they can make the jumps quicker.

It wouldn’t be surprising for your daughter to stay on green for the duration of reception year and possibly into year 1.

At this early stage the scheme is aiming to create confident readers. It’s always better for them to spend a little longer on a level than push them up too soon and have disheartened LOs that are struggling.

As they learn more graphemes/phonemes, they will naturally be able to read the next colour band. We wouldn’t love them up until they have been taught a set of sounds that will be reflected in those books.

But to answer your initial question, green is perfectly normal for a reception child.

Thanks so much for your time!

Sorry, this doesn't seem right to me. A child needs to be reading a fair few digraphs to reach the reception Early Learning goal in reading by July. This would mean pink RWI level (applying set 2 sounds, ay,ee,igh,ow,oo) . Green is Ok for this point on the year and wouldn't concern me too much, but you would be expecting children to reach pink by July. I'd be slightly concerned if a child remained on a level for more than half a term. There are only 10 books in RWI level green, and I don't think you are expected to read them all. You'd want to be doing at least one a week, and we rarely do every book. Maybe my school just moves quickly through the scheme.

Saying that, I have a few children on green RWI, and I'm confident they will make it to ELG with some support.

Thank you for responding. That's quite a different response - half a term on one level vs 4 to 6 months.

I'm actually a geography teacher (no idea about early years) and I was thinking it sounded slow progress, but I'm clueless about primary.

So after green its purple then pink right? I can't see how she will move across two bands by July.

Green is very much the same as purple sound knowledge wise...it's more about fluency and amount of reading. So in some cases we skip purple as they can assess past that. Has your child learnt her set 2 sounds yet ? Once she has and can apply them when reading, then she will be pink. I imagine the school has support in place for those children, as they will also want to get them to pink. Do they bring home homework for phonics ?

She has learnt set 2. She brings home 1 reading book per week and occasionally a list of words to learn...maybe 5 or 6 once a month.

OK, if she is reading the set 2 in reading books then she should really be in pink. There are no set 2 sounds in green RWI books. I wouldn't be concerned if a child is already ready set 2 sounds in words.