Phonics

Reading is a whole school priority. Our ambition is that ALL children leave school able to read.

We teach EVERY child to read.

If a child memorises ten words, they will be able to read ten words. If a child learns 10 sounds they will be able to read 350 three sound words, 4320 four sound words and 21650 five sound words.

Reading fosters a lifelong love for learning and curiosity about the world. Children who develop strong reading habits early on are more likely to continue seeking knowledge and expanding their horizons throughout their lives. This thirst for learning opens doors to various opportunities, from higher education to career advancement, empowering disadvantaged pupils to overcome socio-economic barriers and realise their full potential.

As soon as the children start in Reception, reading is a focus. From sharing stories, rhymes and teaching vocabulary, books are a part of the daily routine. The development of oral blending prepares children well for their phonic journey in Reception. In phonics, we follow Twinkl Phonics, which is a systematic and consistent approach to phonics. Teaching of phonics starts immediately and all children in Reception, Key Stage One and where necessary, Key Stage Two have daily phonics sessions. Timely intervention is planned for those children who are working below expected levels as soon as their needs are identified.

Early reading is crucial to all children and we place a huge amount of importance on this, including supporting children with SEND to develop this skill.  We liaise closely with the SEND team to support all children. This includes small groups and interventions which ensure children with identified SEND make progress with early reading. In supporting pupils with SEND, we know and ensure that phonics is the strategy to be used as pupils need to understand the alphabetic code.

Our reading curriculum is planned using the National Curriculum to ensure there is a clear skills and knowledge progression. Skills and knowledge are built on year-by-year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. Texts are chosen to promote cultural capital; supporting children to develop the necessary knowledge, behaviours, skills and cultural awareness to be successful in society today and in the future. There are also planned opportunities to read across the wider curriculum. Our reading spine has been carefully planned.

Reading for pleasure is actively encouraged across the school. Each day, children are read to by the class teacher, or sometimes a guest reader.  Each year, we aim to invite in authors or writers to celebrate reading with the children. We celebrate exciting events like World Book day and we encourage older pupils to read with the younger ones through our Year 6 buddy programme.

Reading at home is strongly encouraged and celebrated. All children take home two books. The first is a Rhino Reader book which matches directly to their phonics level and is designed to allow the children to develop their fluency. Pupils also choose an additional library book to share with their family at home. This is a high quality book from the library and ensures all children have access to a quality text that parents can share with them. 

Below is an overview of what your child will learn in each level.

Level 1:

Children are encouraged to listen to sounds in their environment. 

Ask your child questions e.g. ‘What can you hear? How do you know?’

Level 2:

By the end of Level 2, children will have had opportunities to:

• identify the phoneme when shown any Level 2 grapheme;

• identify any Level 2 grapheme when they hear the phoneme;

• orally blend and segment CVC words, such as ‘sat’ and ‘pat’;

• blend sounds to read VC words, such as ‘if’, ‘am’, ‘on’ and ‘up’;

• segment VC words into their sounds to spell them (using magnetic letters);

• read the tricky words (words that cannot be sounded out): the, to, I, no, go..

Level 3:

By the end of Level 3, children will have had opportunities to:

• say the phoneme when shown all or most Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes;

• find all or most Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes, from a display, when given the phoneme;

• blend and read CVC words (single-syllable words, consisting of three Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes) such as ‘chop’ and ‘night’;

• segment and make phonetically plausible attempts at spelling CVC words (single-syllable words, consisting of three Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes) such as ‘paid’ and ‘seed’;

• read the tricky words - he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are & spell the tricky words - the, to, I, no, go;

• write each letter correctly when following a model. 

Level 4:

By the end of Level 4, children will have had opportunities to:

• give the phoneme when shown any Level 2 or Level 3 grapheme;

• find any Level 2 or Level 3 grapheme when given the phoneme;

• blend and read words containing adjacent consonants, as well as segment and spell words containing adjacent consonants, such as ‘sand’, ‘bench’ and ‘flight’;

• read the tricky words - some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out, like, little, what & spell the tricky words - he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, here, they, all, are; • write each letter, usually using the correct formation;

• orally segment words into phonemes. No new sounds are taught in Level 4.

Level 5:

By the end of Level 5, children will have had opportunities to:

• give the phoneme, when shown any grapheme that has been taught;

• for any given phoneme, write the common graphemes;

• apply phonics knowledge and skills as the primary approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable;

• read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words, such as ‘dolphin’ and ‘fantastic’

• read automatically all taught tricky and common exception words;

• accurately spell all the Level 2, 3 and 4 tricky words and most of the common exception words for reading;

• form each letter correctly;

• use alternative ways of pronouncing and representing the long vowel phonemes, e.g. ‘ea’ in ‘beak’, ‘ee’ in ‘seed’ and ‘y’ in ‘happy’.

Level 6: 

By the end of Level 6, children will have had opportunities to:

• read accurately most words of two or more syllables;

• read most words containing common suffixes;

• read most common exception words;

• read most words accurately, in age-appropriate books, without overt sounding and blending, fluent enough to allow them to focus on their understanding rather than on decoding individual words;

• sound out most unfamiliar words accurately, without undue hesitation;

• segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonetically plausible attempts at others;

• spell most common exception words correctly.

At this stage, children can read hundreds of words automatically. They are now reading for pleasure and reading to learn, rather than learning to read.

We have included some key resources to support you with phonics at home. These include:

• An Introduction to Twinkl Phonics for parents

• Parent Workshop powerpoint Slides

• A whole school overview of phonics

• A whole school sound mat