Our Approach to Phonics

Phonics Intent

From an early age, children at Church Drive will learn to read with accuracy and confidence and develop a love of reading. Through a lively and systematic approach, children will learn to recognize the 44 common graphemes in the English language and how to sound-blend words for reading (decoding) at the same time as developing handwriting skills and spelling (encoding). As their confidence in decoding develops, they will be taught to comprehend and compose ideas for their own writing. Storybooks will be exciting and matched to their phonics ability to ensure early success in reading. Children will be able to read with fluency by the end of KS1, and they will be adept at applying their phonics skills in all curriculum areas.

Phonics Implementation

Children are taught to read systematically following the Read Write Inc. programme, RWI, through carefully planned lessons and appropriate books. The teaching of each set of sounds is taught simultaneously alongside the appropriate colour book. Daily phonics sessions last between 45 and 60 minutes. Children are assessed regularly and taught in groups depending on their phonics level to ensure that they receive teaching specific to their individual needs. Any children assessed as needing further support will be given additional 1:1 or small group focused phonics sessions.

Expectations for progression through the programme 2025-2026 are as follows:

Foundation 1

Developing pre-reading skills is the first stage of phonics teaching. At this stage, the focus is primarily on developing speaking and listening skills. Speaking and listening are an important set of literacy skills that will create the foundation to further learning. These skills (recognising rhythm, rhyming, hearing initial sounds and syllables and making voice sounds) form the basis for a child’s reading and writing skills – the stronger their skills in this aspect of phonics, the easier they will find the next phases. The children will become aware of sounds around them, sounds made by various instruments, distinguish initial sounds in words, begin to hear and distinguish separate sounds and develop oral blending and segmenting skills through daily activities.

Foundation 2

The children will begin to access the set 1 sounds through short, daily phonics sessions. They are taught memorable songs and rhymes for each sound and will begin to apply this knowledge through phonics games and directed play. Children will learn how to recognise the initial sound in simple words and begin to blend sounds together to read simple CVC words. They will then be introduced to set 2 sounds. By the end of F2, most children will know set 1 and set 2 sounds and be able to segment and blend different words. Children will also begin to read simple sentences independently and recognise a range of high-frequency words.

Year 1/ Year 2

The children will consolidate set 2 sounds and learn set 3 sounds. They will read and write ‘red’ words linked to their phonic text. Learning will also focus on reading alien and nonsense words to assess children’s ability to decode. There is a focus on spelling, holding and writing sentences and finding and fixing spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Children will be introduced to questions to develop their comprehension skills.

KS2

Any KS2 children who have phonic gaps in their knowledge will continue to follow RWI phonics in Year 3 and beyond if outlined on support plans. This will enable these pupils to learn specific phonic sounds and read with increased fluency. The programme will also be used to support the development of children’s comprehension and spelling skills.

Read, Write Inc. has 5 underlying principles – the five Ps:

1. PACE – no time is wasted during teaching sessions. Children are active and involved in a fun and creative way.
2. PRAISE – teachers praise the children constantly throughout the teaching sessions. Children learn more quickly when they are praised for what they do well.
3. PURPOSE – each activity has a very clear purpose. The teacher will set this purpose at the beginning of the lesson so that the children know exactly what they will be learning.
4. PARTICIPATION – all children take part in all parts of the lesson. Full participation is gained through partner work and choral response.
5. PASSION – as a staff we are passionate about our teaching and the benefits of the Read, Write Inc.
   programme.

Phonics Across the Curriculum

Pupils are encouraged to use their phonic skills across all curriculum subjects. All teachers and teaching assistants model the correct articulation of the phonemes and pupils are given opportunities to articulate individual phonemes.

The skills that pupils learn in phonics are applied and developed through reading and writing opportunities in every subject area across the curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to refer back to their phonics sounds and high frequency words to support them with their learning. Each classroom will display and use a GPC chart to
support phonic application.

Assessment

Children’s progress is assessed and tracked each half term using RWI assessments, phonics screening checks and RWI comprehension. Following assessments, next steps are identified and children are re-grouped appropriately to meet their individual needs. These assessments ensure that children are making sufficient progress with their phonics skills to read words, and are on track to become fluent readers who can enjoy reading for pleasure and for learning. Year 1 children are assessed using a National Phonics Screening Check in June. If a pupil in Year 1 does not meet the threshold, they will be retested in Year 2.

Section 1: 12 pseudo-words, 8 real words

The words in section 1 will have a variety of simple word structures (for example CVC, VCC, CCVC and CVCC) using single letters (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q(u), r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z) some consonant digraphs (ch, ck, ff, ll, ng, sh, ss, th, zz)
frequent and consistent vowel digraphs (ar, ee, oi, oo,or)

Section 2: 8 pseudo-words, 12 real words

The words in section 2 will have a variety of more complex word structures (for example, CCVCC, CCCVC, CCCVCC, and two-syllable words) with some: additional consonant digraphs (ph, wh), less frequent and consistent vowel digraphs, including split digraphs (a-e, ai, au, aw, ay, ea, e-e, er, ew, i-e, ie, ir, oa, o-e, ou, ow, oy, ue, u-e, ur), and trigraphs (air, igh).