Guest Posted April 28, 2013 Posted April 28, 2013 Is anybody out there using RWI in their schools. If so -how long are your daily sessions in Reception at the moment?
AnonyMouse_4562 Posted April 28, 2013 Posted April 28, 2013 We do RWI in our school and the Reception children are doing a full hour now and also splitting into groups with the rest of KS1. Green Hippo x
Guest Posted April 28, 2013 Posted April 28, 2013 Thanks for the reply Green Hippo - how are the Rec children coping with the hour? have you been doing the programme since Sept? Do you d any additional Litearcy focus sessions / writing activities in addition to the RWI session?? Sorry to bombard with so many questions - we are in the eraly stages of RWI . . . . .
AnonyMouse_4562 Posted April 28, 2013 Posted April 28, 2013 Hi fluffy, We are in our 4th year of RWI and we really have taken it on as a whole-school approach. I introduce the Nursery children to it from January - e.g. slowly going through the sounds and using the little rhymes as needed to support writing in CI and TL activities. I usually have a group ready (as I do now) to start the programme properly after Easter but this is done VERY sensitively and only 15 minutes 3 times a week. Then in Reception they start the programme properly from September but gradually building up time. At first they all do as the Reception class, then from October half-term they are assessed and then split into ability groups (usually at this time there are just 2 groups - a small group that are ready to move on to the next stage and the others that continue with the 1st stage). By Christmas all the children are doing an hour - it does sound a lot and gets frowned upon by lots of people! Each time the children are assessed they are then put into the appropriate group for their ability. Teachers have larger groups and 5 TAs have groups of 8 across FS and KS1. I think the key to making any phonics programme work is that it has to be a whole-school approach with everyone knowing exactly what they are doing. RWI does seem to work - we have seen a dramatic improvement since we have taken it on. It is a lot for Reception children especially once the writing-side steps up a gear but they do seem to enjoy it! I think the Reception teacher does 2 or 3 further Literacy focuses per week. Hope that helps Green Hippo x
Recommended Posts