Intent

We have developed and evolved our own bespoke, systematic and synthetic phonics programme to meet the diverse needs of our school and local community. This has been developed based on our research of a range of approaches and our knowledge of how our children learn. We firmly believe that our phonics programme provides the foundations of learning to make the development into fluent reading and writing easier. Our ultimate aim is that children leave Year 2 fluent, confident and independent readers being able to apply their knowledge and skills across the curriculum.

How we teach Phonics - Early Reading

• Our strong foundations for teaching reading is through our daily phonics lessons, starting within our nursery setting.

• Children learn to identify environmental and percussive sounds with teaching of rhymes and songs to enable them to begin to make the distinction between different sounds in preparation for identifying Phase 2 sounds and phonemes by the end of the year.

• Children in early years and KS1 are taught phonics daily in mixed ability settings

• Our progressive phonics curriculum continues into reception where sessions are delivered with a Phase 2 and 3 sound focus and teaching of common exception words.

• ‘Fred Ted’ is used to support the children in reinforcing the skills and knowledge, and speaks only in 'pure' sounds.

• Our bespoke phonics posters and desk aids support the learning and application.

• In Year 1, phonics sessions are delivered twice daily with a phase 3 and 5 focus.

• In Year 2, phonics sessions take place daily with a focus on phase 5

• In Year 3, phonics sessions take place daily in the first term with a focus on phase 5.

• At the end of each term in Years Reception, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and each half-term in Years 1 and 2, children are assessed and teachers plan, with support of the phonics leads, the next steps to close any gaps within individual classes.

• In the explicit phonics sessions from Reception upwards, children are taught to blend and segment; to say the sounds and write the sounds and write whole words.

• Children have access to high quality resources to support our bespoke, systematic phonics programme.

• Children have books matched to their phonics stage.

• Children's gaps are identified and children receive additional support to catch up.

• Children who have not passed the phonics screening check receive additional and ongoing support and their progress is monitored termly.

• Workshops are used to provide information for parents to support at home.

• Training is provided for all staff to be able to deliver a consistent and progressive approach.

• Every child has an individual book (picture/decodable book) to take home.

• All children read frequently with an adult.

• Targeted children will read with an adult at least twice a week.

• Children have access to high-quality texts that they can take home from the class library.

Impact

Through the teaching of our bespoke, systematic phonics programme, all children become confident, fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Embedding the alphabetic code early on, means that children quickly learn to write simple words and sentences.