In This Section
Phonics
English is a very tricky language! Although the alphabet has only 26 letters, spoken English contains 44 phonemes (sounds). These can be represented in writing by more than 200 graphemes (different ways of spelling a sound). This makes up our highly complex alphabetic code.
At The Radstone Primary School, we are dedicated to ensuring that every pupil learns to read, regardless of their needs, background, or abilities.
“Teach a child to read and keep that child reading and we will change everything. And I mean everything.” Jean Winterson.
Curriculum Intent
At The Radstone Primary School, we strive for our children to become fluent and accurate readers from an early age. We value reading as a key life skill and one that lays the foundations for lifelong learning. We intend for all our children to learn to read as quickly as possible and then to keep on reading. We aim for every child to learn to decode quickly and accurately so that reading becomes effortless and automatic and effectively prepares them to develop their comprehension. We foster a love of reading by helping children to succeed and progress by stage, not age. We understand that the English language is complex and is most effectively taught through a systematic, synthetic approach. As a Trust, we use Read Write Inc. Phonics to teach early reading and we continue to use the programme to support children to ‘keep up, not catch up’
Implementation
Children at The Radstone Primary School follow the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme through Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2. The programme then continues for those children who require additional support as they move into Key Stage 2.
Teaching and learning focuses on what children already know and what they need to learn next in order to make the best possible progress. We begin teaching the sounds first, in a specific order, followed by how to blend those sounds together to read words. As they become more confident, children read storybooks which are carefully matched to the sounds they can already read, with the intention of supporting them to feel successful. Children access these books through daily guided reads in school which gives them the confidence to bring those same books home to read independently. Alongside this, the children are given additional, unfamiliar books which match the stage of those read at school.
We assess children every half term to identify their “Goldilocks spot” (not too easy, not too hard) and place them into appropriate phonics groups with other children at a similar challenge level. The children are grouped by stage, not age – we mix children across EYFS, KS1 and KS2 to ensure every child is challenged appropriately.
Our school and the Read Write Inc. programme is committed to ensuring every pupil learns to read. The rigorous assessment process also helps to identify children who would benefit from daily one-to-one tuition on top of their daily phonics group session, to help them to ‘keep up, not catch up’
We use the popular and well-established Read Write Inc. as our phonics scheme. Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing. Read Write Inc. Phonics includes reading books written using only the letters they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words). The children will quickly feel confident and successful. Please click on their logo to access their ‘Parent’s Guide to Read Write Inc. Phonics.’
In Early Years and Key Stage 1, children are systematically taught the phonemes that enable us to read and then spell words. During phonics sessions, children are taught to identify all the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in a particular order beginning with s,a,t,p,i,n. They are taught to blend, where they say the sounds that make up a word and merge them together until they can hear what the word is – this is a vital skill of early reading. Children are also taught to segment, which is the opposite of blending, by saying the word and breaking it up into the correct phonemes – this skill is a key aspect for early spelling.
Impact
The impact of our phonics curriculum is evident in:
- Reading Proficiency: Children become confident, fluent readers who can tackle both familiar and unfamiliar words using their phonics knowledge.
- Writing Skills: Improved spelling abilities as children apply their understanding of the alphabetic code.
- Phonics Screening Success: High pass rates in the Year One Phonics Screening Check, with targeted support ensuring success for those who need to retake in Year Two.
- Confidence and Independence: Children demonstrate increased confidence in their ability to read and write independently.
- Love of Reading: Development of enthusiasm for reading as children's skills improve, leading to engagement with a wider range of texts.
- Cross-Curricular Application: Improved access to the wider curriculum as reading skills develop.
We assess these impacts through ongoing teacher assessments, regrouping pupils to ensure they are always in the correct group for their level of development. In addition, the Phonics Screening Check produces a statutory attainment point at the end of Year One. Our comprehensive approach, grounded in our ethos of Quality, Enthusiasm, and Partnership, ensures that our phonics curriculum not only meets national standards but also nurtures confident, enthusiastic readers and writers prepared for their next steps in education.
Key Information
Expectations of Progress Jan 25
Is there an assessment?
Yes, there is a National Phonics Screening in Year 1 where the children have to read 20 real words and 20 ‘alien’ words. This is conducted in a very child-friendly way by the class teachers. At every parents evening you will be informed of your child’s progress in Phonics and at the end of Year 1 the school report will inform you if they have passed or not. If your child does not pass in Year 1 they will be given additional support throughout Year 2 to enable them to pass the next year.
What will my child learn this year?
Phases 1, 2 and 3 are taught within Reception. Phases 4 and 5 are taught in Year 1. All phases are then revisited as part of Year 2, alongside phase 6 to develop the children’s spelling understanding. From Year 2 on-wards the children will follow and complete the Read Write Inc spelling programme.
How do I know if my child is saying the sounds correctly?
It is important to enunciate the sounds correctly and try to encourage your child not to add on the /uh/ sound, for example saying /t/ not /tuh/. You can hear how to say each sound here.
Key Terminology
Phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word.
Feel/watch how your mouth changes when you say a word, every time your mouth moves/changes shape you are saying a new phoneme, e.g. b-r-i-ck
There are 44 phonemes in the English language
Grapheme
Graphemes represent how a phoneme is spelt. Each grapheme is a unit of sound regardless of how many letters there are.
e.g. The word b-r-igh-t is made up of 4 phonemes; the igh phoneme is represented by 3 letters but only makes one phoneme.
A grapheme can represent more than one phoneme e.g. C = cat and city
Digraph
Two letters, which makes 1 phoneme. e.g. duck
A consonant digraph contains two consonants
e.g. sh ck th ll
A vowel digraph contains at least one vowel
e.g. ai ee ar oy
Split Digraph
A digraph in which the two letters are not adjacent e.g. make
a-e is a unit of sound (digraph), it is being ‘split’ by the constant k.
Trigraph
Three letters, which make 1 phoneme. e.g. light
Oral blending
Hearing a series of spoken phonemes and merging them together to make a spoken word without corresponding to any graphemes (no text is needed). e.g. teacher says “b-u-s” children say “bus”
Blending (links to reading)
Recognising the letter sounds in a written word and merging them together in the order they are written to pronounce the word. e.g. c-u-p = cup
Segmenting (links to writing)
Identifying the individual phonemes in a spoken word and writing them down to form a word.