Phonics at Langford Village Community Primary School

Intent

At Langford Village Community Primary School we aim to create a love for reading, writing and spelling by developing confident, accurate and independent readers and writers through the teaching of systematic phonics.

Implementation

We use the FFT Success For All programme to provide daily engaging and active phonics lessons. In phonics, we teach children that the letters of the alphabet represent 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 in Reception and follows a very specific sequence that allows our children to build on their previous phonic knowledge and master specific phonic strategies as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover. At Langford we also model these strategies in shared reading and writing both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on the development of language and language skills for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

How we teach Phonics:

• We teach children that phonics helps us to read and write
• We follow a specific lesson structure and teaching sequence (revisit & review, teach, practise, apply) which promotes independence, resilience and success in all our learners
• We ensure that all phonics teaching is delivered with pace and passion
• We include an active element to all lessons that ensures participation for all learners
• We ensure that children take home a book that matches their phonic ability
• We invite all parents to attend phonics and reading workshops to support their children with the development of their child’s phonics skills
• We teach ‘tricky words’ as there are some exceptions to regular phonetically decodable words

Phonics and Reading Books

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 a sense of achievement. From Year 2 onwards the children are taught phonics alongside spelling patterns and rules. Across the Reception and Key Stage 1, classrooms are well resourced with phonic displays and resources which are readily available empowering children to independently make correct spelling choices.

Impact

Assessment of Phonics:

• We track our children throughout each 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 pre and post-teaching is provided for children to enable them to keep up with the phonics programme
• Additional teaching and support for phonics is also put in place for those children in KS2 that still require support.

Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1 and by in-school assessment.