Phonics and Early Reading at Longney CofE Primary Academy
At Longney CofE Primary Academy, we aim to develop confident, fluent and passionate readers and writers from an early stage. We use 'Essential Letters and Sounds' which is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP). Phonics is taught daily and we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represents sounds and that these are put together to make words. The children learn to recognise the different graphemes that they will see when they are reading or writing.
Our phonics teaching starts as soon as the children start in Reception and it follows a specific sequence that allows our children to build on their previous phonic knowledge and master specific phonic strategies. As a result, our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover.
At Longney we also model these strategies in shared reading and writing outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum.
How we teach Phonics
At Longney we:
- Follow Essential Letters and Sounds which has a four part lesson structure and teaching sequence (review, teach, practise, apply) which promotes independence, resilience and success in all our learners.
- Teach children that phonics helps us to read and write.
- Whole class teaching allows all children to access Quality First Teaching, catch up sessions and interventions are also provided for those children who need more practice and support.
- Ensure that all phonics teaching is delivered with pace and passion.
- Use 100% decodable books in phonics lessons so that children can directly apply their new knowledge and phonic skills at an appropriate level. We use a range of decodable books which have been carefully organised to match the sounds your child is learning.
- Invite all parents to attend phonics and reading workshops to support their children with the development of their child’s phonics skills.
- Classrooms are well resourced with phonic working walls and resources which are readily available empowering children to independently make correct spelling choices.
When the children are starting to learn the phonic code it is important that the books they read are closely matched to the letter sounds they are learning. The books should give the children confidence and help develop fluency, we want our children to feel confident and have a sense of achievement.
Children also have the opportunity to choose a quality picture book that they can share with an adult at home.
Assessment of Phonics
We track our children throughout each Phonic Phase to monitor both achievement and progress.
Our main emphasis on the assessment of phonics is on how effectively the children are able to apply their learning into reading and writing. This provides the evidence that the phonic learning is fully embedded.
If necessary, further support through targeted interventions is provided for children to enable them to keep up with the phonics programme.
Additional support for phonics is also put in place for those children in KS2 that still require support.
