Our approach - Our aim is to deliver systematic synthetic phonics instruction throughout Reception and Year 1 to ensure that most children meet or exceed the expected standard in the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 as well as the word reading ELGs (Early Learning Goals) for EYFS. (MLS Handbook) 

Our phonics curriculum aligns with our whole school aims: 

Effective Communication - we need children to be able to effectively and fluently read in order to become successful, confident citizens.  

Aiming High - We have high expectations of all pupils in this subject and have an aspirational pass rate for both the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check and the end of EYFS and KS1 assessments.

Timetable expectations - 

Daily phonics sessions of 20 minutes in Reception and Key Stage 1. 

Each session follows the format: Revisit/Review, Teach, Practice, Apply, Assess.
In addition there is a 10-15 minute daily reading session in each class, using a text matched closely to the current phase - these sessions aim to foster a love for reading, focussing on fluency and decoding skills, sight reading of High Frequency words and simple comprehension.

Principles and expectations - strategies and resources to be used:

The children will work through a series of phases, beginning with environmental sounds/body percussion before moving onto phoneme recognition. In EYFS lots of this is multi-sensory in approach.

In each classroom you will see: 

Displays of sounds of the week / Words of the week, Frieze of graphemes, Key flashcards, Sets of Phonics Readers

Recording and Marking - 

Photographs or whiteboards / Some written recording in phonics books (Y1)

Resources needed -

Handbooks, Classroom Kits

Whiteboards, Phonics Book (Y1) 

Scheme, resources and licences - 

My Letters and Sounds (Schofield and Sims) - Reception and Year 1 Teachers Handbooks and Classroom Kits plus Phonics Readers (PH2-PH5)

Teaching sequence in every class:

Vocabulary and terminology progression: 

Assessment and monitoring:
Assessment comes at the end of each phase, however regular (daily/weekly) assessment is carried out by the teacher as appropriate.

We have a bespoke pre-Phonics intervention to address gaps, primarily in Phase 1, due to the amount of children that can come in at a low level from pre-school/nursery settings.

Additional daily ‘keeping-up’ sessions to reinforce new graphemes can help these children keep up with their peers from Phase 2 onwards. More information can be found here:
Reception
Year 1

Children that do not pass the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1, or continue to need support in Year 2 and beyond will receive appropriate interventions using the materials from the My Letters and Sounds scheme. More information on this ‘targeted support’ can be found here:
Phase 2 + 3
Phase 4
Phase 5