Phonics

We base our teaching of phonics around the Letters and Sounds programme 'Phonics Bug'. Phonics Bug is a focused teaching strategy that teaches children the sounds made by letters and combinations of letters; within this programme, children are also taught the skills of blending sounds together in order to read words and segmenting sounds as they learn to spell. Phonics is taught through 6 phases:

Phase 1 - supports the development of spoken language.

Phase 2-5 - is a systematic approach to phonics teaching and word recognition skills.

Phase 6 - focuses on word-specific spellings and the rules for spelling alternatives.

Phonics is taught as a discrete session every day in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Sessions are delivered by the teacher either as a whole class, ability groups or in small groups. Those children, who did not pass the Phonics Check in Year 1, are provided with additional support in Year 2 to ensure they pass the retake.

In KS2, pupils are assessed to identify those who are at risk of failing to read and systematic phonic teaching is provided. The application of taught phonics skills runs throughout the whole curriculum.

Spelling, appropriate to ability and age expectation, is taught in KS2, explicitly for half an hour each week, in line with statutory guidance as outlined in English Appendix 1 - Spelling. The children are taught a range of strategies to enable them to spell words correctly and are encouraged to apply these strategies to their independent writing.