Phonics

Intent

At Riversdale, we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the time pupils leave us, we aim to ensure that they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. We have a strong focus on language development, because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects. As such we aspire for all of our readers to be equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary.

To achieve academic success, and fluent access to the world around them, pupils must develop a secure knowledge of the alphabetic code and master phonics so that they are able to read and spell across the curriculum. We therefore value the importance of phonics as the prime approach to teaching decoding, prosody and comprehension skills, whilst ensuring accessibility, high expectations and ambition for all pupils, regardless of background.

Implementation

Phonics is taught at the school from the Early Years/Foundation Stage through to the end of Key Stage 1/start of Key Stage 2 (where appropriate). As a school we utilise the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics scheme, as this best suits the needs of our students. This is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP) developed for schools by schools. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised to provide a complete teaching programme meeting all the expectations of the National Curriculum, the Ofsted Deep Dive into reading and preparing pupils to go beyond the expectations of the Phonics Screening Check. Through our daily interactions with pupils and across the curriculum, we model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics, providing a wide range of application opportunities.

Foundations for Phonics in Nursery

We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all pupils to meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:

sharing high-quality stories and poems
learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
attention to high-quality language.

We ensure Nursery pupils are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.

Daily Phonics Lessons in Reception and Year 1

We teach phonics for 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help pupils become fluent readers.

Pupils make a strong start in Reception: teaching begins in Week 2 of the Autumn term.

Pupils in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
Pupils in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.

Daily Keep-up Sessions: Ensuring Every Pupil Learns to Read

Any child who needs additional practice has daily keep-up support, taught by a fully trained adult. Keep-up sessions match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
We timetable daily phonics lessons for any child in Year 2 or 3 who is not fully fluent at reading or has not passed the Phonics screening check. These pupils urgently need to catch up, so the gap between themselves and their peers does not widen. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these using the keep-up resources – at pace.
If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics ‘Rapid Catch-Up’ lessons to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place until the pupil has reached the expected standard.

Teaching Reading

We teach pupils to read through reading practice sessions three times a week. These:

are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of approximately six pupils.
use books matched to the pupils’ secure phonic knowledge using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessments and book matching grids.
are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.

Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the pupils’ working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

decoding
prosody: teaching pupils to read with understanding and expression
comprehension: teaching pupils to understand the text.

In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Pupils who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

In Year 2 and 3, we continue to teach reading in this way for any pupils who still need to practise reading with decodable books.

Home Reading

The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared with the family. Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to pupils.

Assessment

Pupils’ progress in phonics is continually reviewed through assessment. This is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional support as soon as they need it.

Assessment for learning is used daily within class to identify pupils needing keep-up support and weekly in the review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.

Summative assessment is used every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be addressed, to identify any pupils needing additional support and to plan the keep-up support that they need. These assessments are used by the senior leadership team and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of pupils and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into place.

Where pupils are new to the school, the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised placement assessment is used to quickly identify any gaps in their phonic knowledge and plan appropriate teaching and/or support.

Pupils in Year 1 sit the Phonics screening check. Any child not passing the check re-sits it in Year 2.

Pupils in Year 2 to 6 are assessed through their teacher’s ongoing formative assessment and the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds placement assessment, followed by the scheme assessment appropriate to the support/intervention offer.

Useful Documents

Parent Information:

Pronunciation Guides:

Tricky Words:

Curriculum Policies

Please find our policy below: