Read Write Inc

[ThatCheekyKoala]

Hi, my daughter is in year 1, her school follows Read Write Inc. She came home this week saying she doesn’t have phonics anymore, now she has “comprehension”. Is that a thing or did she misunderstand? 🙈 I assumed she would have phonics classes for quite a while yet?

She has misheard that

Is she secure in her set 3 phonics? With RWI I was be expecting most children to have moved on from learning phonics. That doesn’t mean they don’t use phonics within their reading and writing.

She reads quite well (I think, but she’s my first so not really sure what the expected level is 😅) and her last set of books was grey if that helps? She said she doesn’t get the coloured books anymore, she now gets small chapter books which is indeed what she brought home.

That’s perfect.

RWI comprehension is a follow-on programme for children secure in their phonics and teaches wider literacy skills. She will be doing her phonics test very shortly if she hasn't already.

Hi just popping on to say I’m in charge of Phonics at my school and this means she will be ‘coming off phonics’ and moving onto the tag on bit at the end of the read write inc which is the comprehension scheme. It means she has for want of a better way of wording it she has come to the end of the phonics scheme and is a secure phonetic reader.

That was about the age DS moved from a program focused on learning the phonic sounds, to one where the focus was on comprehension. There will still be reading practice but probably follpwed by questions about the plot.

PSC starts nationwide on Monday.

Yep, this is a thing. It's a good thing for a child coming to the end of year one. It means that she's grasped the basics of phonics and now can read longer books. Grey is the last level of RWI phonics, so she no longer needs to be in a RWI group. She will spend phonics time doing comprehension work, which will put her in a good position for starting year 2. Tell her well done and enjoy reading more interesting books with her 😆

Yes, as others have said this is very normal. There is only so much they need to learn in terms of 'phonics' (ie learning the different graphemes (written letters) which represent the different phonemes (spoken sounds). Once the phonics screenings is over, the focus switches for those who have passed to spag (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and comprehension skills. I imagine the person who leads her group (who presumably are all expected to comfortably pass) told them that they have come to the end of their phonics this week, so your daughter was listening well to repeat this to you! Some schools even approach the phonics screening, which starts next week, by presenting it as a quiz to 'celebrate' the end of phonics lessons, to make it seem like a fun treat where they get to spend a few minutes 1-1 with their teacher, rather than a test. Those who don't pass will obviously still continue with phonics interventions in Year 2, as they'll need to re-sit it next year, but for most their phonics journey is coming to an end now.

She'll still be using her phonic knowledge to read and spell, but there's nothing new to learn in terms of decoding. She's reached a point where she has learned all of the phonics 'code'.

All schemes are different, so some schools following different schemes may still call what they do in Year 2 'phonics' but the focus switches to different spelling rules etc. I've only taught above Reception/Year 1 once, with a year in Year 2, but we called those sessions spag rather than phonics that year at that particular school.

Read Write Inc.
My child is in Y1 and the school uses Read write inc for phonics and the whole of the 'English' lesson.
My child said that it's the teaching assistant that teaches her group. So not a teacher. I know all staff are trained to teach the programme. But I feel a bit disgruntled that my child isn't being taught her core skills by a qualified teacher. I'm also concerned that the TAs are being exploited as they are doing exactly the same as the teacher but for far, far less pay.
Any thoughts welcome.

I’m a teacher. All staff undertake the training for the set number of days. Can I just say I think it’s unfounded about the TAs being exploited! First of all, Phonics is ONE aspect of daily teachings, and in most schools lasts anywhere from 30 mins to an hour. Secondly, teachers have lots more to be accountable for, plan, prepare, assess.
I wouldn’t be anywhere without the support of the teaching assistants that help to deliver phonics! They are worth everything and more, but the buck stops with me, and not them!

Read write Inc is a highly structured programme. I'm theory, it shouldn't matter one bit who teaches it, because everyone does the same steps in every session. What does matter is that the child is in the correct group. You can demand for her to join the teacher's group, but that group may well be the children struggling to secure the basic letter sounds, while your child is working on digraphs and trigraphs. Moving her would hold her back. Or perhaps it's the other way round, and rushing her on will lead to frustration and confusion.

It's not exploitation. It's part of the expectations when taking up a TA role. RWI takes little planning time, and it's taught in small groups.