Phonics and spelling

At our school we believe that reading is an essential life skill, integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them. We understand that a good grasp of English is the bedrock of the entire curriculum and that children who are confident and adept readers and writers will be empowered to succeed in other areas.  

 

Our reading curriculum strives to balance the instruction of cognitive reading processes which develop the children’s technical and comprehension skills, and experiences which foster a lifelong love of reading.

 

Our Reading curriculum is delivered through synthetic phonics, our book-based English curriculum, guided reading, home reading, reading across the curriculum, regular opportunities for independent reading and hearing quality texts read aloud every day. All of these are essential components as they offer the range of opportunities needed to develop fluent, enthusiastic and critical readers.

 

Early Reading and Phonics

 

Intent

 

Synthetic phonics is the first formal method for the teaching of reading that we use as it provides the foundations required to become a fluent reader. We understand that once children are able to decode fluently, the teaching of comprehension is quicker and more effective as they are able to focus all of their attention to understanding what they read. Daily, fast paced, highly interactive and challenging lessons ensure effective learning and progress.

 

Implementation

 

We  use the Wandle scheme to teach our children the core skills of segmenting and blending and to start them on their ‘reading journey’. We want our children’s experience of Phonics to be immersive and connected, so, our book based Writing curriculum has been resequenced so that in Reception,Year 1 and Year 2, children are taught the graphemes and their corresponding phonemes and they area able to resist these through our  book-based Literacy Curriculum 

 

Children in Reception and Year 1 have a daily Phonics session. Our Phonics lessons follow the same format each time, with this repetition helping to embed the learning. The lesson progression goes as follows:

• Hear the sound

• Read the sound

• Review previous sounds

• Read the words (looking at decodable words as well as practising sight words)

• Spell with Fred Fingers

 

In Reception, we work to secure up to Phase 4 of Letters and Sounds. We also regularly identify any graphemes that the children are finding difficult and revisit them, and it is this consolidation that ensures that children’s foundations are firm.

 

Children who are identified as not being on track to pass the phonics screening check receive additional intervention support, including active phonics sessions and 1:1 or small group sessions focused on their individual areas of need.  

 

In Year 2, children who did not pass the phonics screening check continue to receive daily phonics lessons alongside the Year 1 children. Those Year 2 children who pass the Phonics screening check and are secure with their sounds move onto a spelling-focused Phonics session. This involves them using their Phonics knowledge to write dictated sentences. 

 

If a child still needs extra Phonics support in KS2, they join the KS1 lessons as a helper, as well as receiving additional intervention support. KS2 staff receive phonics training, ensuring that they have a secure understanding of how Phonics has been taught to the children so that they are able to mirror KS1 pedagogy to support children in their day-to-day lessons.

 

All children in Foundation Stage and Key Stage One receive one-to-one reading; the frequency of which is determined by their needs. In these sessions and for their home reading, children read two books: one phonically levelled text and one benchmarked book at their decodability level to ensure that their comprehension skills are also developed. 

 

The reading of common exception words is threaded through phonics sessions and shared and guided reading. To allow for further consolidation, these words are sent home with children to ensure continuous practise. 

 

Impact

 

Children’s progress in phonics is continually reviewed through periodic phonic assessments and evidence from their reading and writing. Through these, teachers identify the graphemes that need to be addressed which then informs groupings. In June, the national Phonics Screening Check is undertaken to confirm that the children have learned to decode to an age appropriate standard and determines what level of provision they will require the following year. In Key Stage One, regular assessment of the children’s decoding and comprehension is undertaken through PM Benchmarking.

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