Our Phonics Subject Leader

Mrs Watson

Intent 

High-quality phonics teaching lies at the heart of our early education, securing the crucial skills of word recognition that, once mastered, enable children to read fluently and automatically. Once children become fluent readers, they can focus on understanding the meaning of texts, making the vital shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Reading is recognised as an essential skill for accessing the world around them.

Implementation 

At St. Joseph’s, we follow the Sounds-Write programme to teach phonics. Our aim is for all children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1. All staff involved in phonics teaching have completed a four-day Sounds-Write training programme. In Reception and Year One, our reading scheme is fully decodable, using Sounds-Write texts and Phonics Dandelion Readers.

Beginning in Autumn term in Reception, children are taught phonics daily for 30 minutes, this continues until the end of KS1. In EYFS, children will be introduced to the Initial Code.

During KS1 children will continue following the systematic phonics teaching and learn the Extended Code looking at ‘same sounds different spelling’ and ‘same spelling different sounds.’  

In Key Stage 2, learning is consolidated with a greater focus on spelling and word structure. 

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Concepts

Sounds-Write teaches children that: 

  • Letters are symbols (spellings) that represent sounds 
  • Each sound may be represented (spelled) by a 1, 2, 3 or 4-letter spelling 
  • The same sound can be spelled in more than one way (goat, slow, note, toe, over) 
  • Many spellings represent more than one sound (ea in read and bread) 

 Skills

The following skills are taught throughout the Sounds-Write program: 

  • Blending – The ability to push sounds together to build words (c-a-t = cat) 
  • Segmenting – The ability to pull apart the individual sounds in words (pig = p-i-g) 
  • Phoneme manipulation – The ability to insert sounds into words and delete sounds out of words. This skill is necessary to test out alternatives for spellings that represent more than one sound.

Teaching

  • All adults use consistent, concise language when teaching phonics (e.g. “letters spell sounds” rather than “letters make sounds”). We follow a script.
  • Daily phonics teaching is supported by consistent time allocation and high-quality resources.
  • Phonics and reading are taught discretely but are also embedded across the wider curriculum

Assessment and Support

  • Progress in phonics is reviewed half-termly through lesson visits, pupil progress discussions, and Sounds-Write diagnostic and progress assessments.
  • Pupils receive additional support as needed, including Catch Up or Keep Up interventions to ensure they stay on track with phonics development.
  • Pupils with gaps in phonics knowledge receive timely, targeted intervention and access to age-appropriate decodable readers to support continued progress in reading.

At the end of Year 1, children take the statutory Phonics Screening Check. This assesses how well children can use the phonics skills they have learned. Any children who do not pass this test have small group interventions to continue and review their phonics journey in Year 2 and beyond where needed. 

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Impact 

Children will become confident readers, spellers and writers. 

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Parental Engagement

  • We hold Phonics Workshops where parents are invited into class to assist their child during a phonics lesson. This teaches parents strategies and phrases to use to at home, such as 'Say the sounds and read the word'.
  • Parents and carers are encouraged to complete the free Sounds-Write course to support their child’s learning - Free Early Childhood Education Tutorial - Help your child to read and write | Udemy

Additional resources include:

Here is a short video showing you how each letter in the initial code is pronounced correctly. Alex saying the sounds Sounds-Write Initial Code 

Here is a short video showing you how to read a decoable story with your child. Reading a decodable story with Max - YouTube 

Professional Development of Staff

All adults involved with teaching phonics have attended a 4 day training programme on the delivery of Sounds Write.

Staff are supported to develop their practice and keep their knowledge up to date by the Phonics Lead, who attends regular Sounds Write meetings and networking sessions.

Staff have access to the Sounds Write portal where they can access online training.