Purpose of Study (National Curriculum) Reading – PHONICS

English has a pre-eminent place in education and in society. A high-quality education in English will teach pupils to speak and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others and through their reading and listening, others can communicate with them. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Literature, especially, plays a key role in such development. Reading also enables pupils both to acquire knowledge and to build on what they already know. All the skills of language are essential to participating fully as a member of society; pupils, therefore, who do not learn to speak, read and write fluently and confidently are effectively disenfranchised.

School Curriculum for Phonics

This describes your subject’s intent, the WHAT, i.e. what children will learn in your subject 

Knowledge and skills build through

a progressive systematic synthetic phonics programme

Phonics is taught by: adherence to the school’s phonics programme. Children may be taught whole-class or in smaller groups.

Exposes children to the prime approach used to teach reading

Develop:

Basic phonological awareness, aural and oral synthesis skills (for reading) and segmentation skills  (for spelling), blending skills (for reading), strategies to read common irregular (‘tricky’) words accurately.

     PHONICS

Provide:

Engaging, systematic progressive sessions led by fully trained adults

Phonics is taught through:

Daily sessions using the Revise/Review, Teach, Practise and Apply Model.

Build:

Vocabulary associated with phonics such as digraph, trigraph, phoneme, grapheme

The effective use of a Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme is integral to achieving aims taken from The National Curriculum for English. These aims include ensuring all pupils:

·         read easily, fluently and with good understanding

·         write clearly, accurately and coherently

DfE Guidance ‘Choosing a Phonics Teaching Programme’ (03/23) states:

 A complete SSP programme is one that provides:

·         all that’s essential to teach SSP to children in the reception and key stage 1 years of mainstream primary schools

·         sufficient support for children in reception and key stage 1 to become fluent readers

·         a structured route for most children to meet or exceed the expected standard in the year one phonics screening check

·         all national curriculum expectations for word reading through decoding by the end of key stage 1

 The programmes used by Trust schools meet these criteria. Great Bentley and Frinton Primaries have developed their own programmes, Elmstead are using the ‘Little Wandle’ programme.

In addition, our programmes meet the following criteria taken from: Validation of Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programmes: Supporting Documentations (03/23)

The programme should:

·         constitute a complete SSP programme providing fidelity to its teaching framework for the duration of the programme

·         present systematic synthetic phonic work as the prime approach to decoding print

·         enable children to start learning phonic knowledge and skills early in reception, and provide a structured route for most children to meet
 or exceed the expected standard in the year one phonics screening check and all national curriculum expectations for word reading through decoding by the end of key stage 1.

·         be designed for daily teaching sessions and teach the main grapheme-phoneme correspondences of English (the alphabetic principle) in a clearly defined, incremental sequence

·         begin by introducing a defined group of grapheme-phoneme correspondences that enable children to read and spell many words early on

·         progress from simple to more complex phonic knowledge and skills, cumulatively covering all the major grapheme-phoneme correspondences in English

·         teach children to read printed words by identifying and blending (synthesising) individual phonemes, from left to right all through the word

·         teach them to apply the skill of segmenting spoken words into their constituent phonemes for spelling and that this is the reverse of blending phonemes to read words

·         provide the opportunity for them to practise and apply known grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) for spelling through the dictation of sounds, words and sentences

·         ensure they’re taught to decode and spell common-exception words (sometimes called ‘tricky’ words), appropriate to their level of progress in the programme

·         provide resources that support the teaching of lower-case and capital letters correctly, with clear start and finish points, and that will move children on by teaching them to write words made up of learned GPCs, followed by simple sentences composed from such words and any common-exception words learned

·         be built around direct teaching sessions, with extensive teacher-child interaction and a multi-sensory approach, with guidance on how direct teaching sessions can be adapted for online delivery, either live or recorded

·         provide resources to enable teachers to deliver the programme effectively, including sufficient decodable reading material to ensure children can practise by reading texts closely matched to their level of phonic attainment and that do not require them to use alternative strategies to read unknown words

·         include guidance and resources to ensure children practise and apply the core phonics they’ve been taught 

·         enable their progress to be assessed, and highlight the ways in which the programme meets the needs of those at risk of falling behind, including the lowest-attaining 20%

·         provide full guidance for teachers and appropriate programme-specific training, either directly through appointed agents or remotely, with assurances that there is sufficient capacity and those delivering it have both high levels of expertise and relevant experience

 IMPACT (What children will have learned)

Frinton and Bentley

By the end of EY:

Most children will be working within Phase 4. Some will be secure in Phase 4. Some will be working within Phase 5.

 Phase 2:

• Be able to orally synthesise and segment VC and CVC words containing the GPCs taught so far

• Give all or most of the phonemes when shown Phase 2 graphemes (e.g., 20 out of the 23 GPCs)

• Find all or most Phase 2 graphemes, from a display, when given the phoneme

• Be able to read the five tricky words the, to, I, no, go, into

• Begin to form the Phase 2 graphemes correctly when writing

Phase 3:

• Be able to orally synthesise and segment CVC words containing the GPCs taught so far

• Give all or most of the phonemes when shown Phase 2 and Phase 3 graphemes

• Find all or most Phase 2 and Phase 3 graphemes from a display when given the phoneme

• Be able to blend and read CVC words

• Be able to segment and make phonetically plausible attempt at spelling CVC words

• Be able to read the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are

• Be able to spell tricky words the, to, I no, go

• Write each Phase 2 and 3 letter-shape correctly when following a model e.g. visual or kinaesthetic.

Phase 4:

• Be able to orally synthesise and segment words with adjacent consonants (CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CCCVC and CCCVCC) containing the GPCs taught so far

• Be able to orally synthesise and segment some polysyllabic words (containing the GPCs taught so far)

• Give the phoneme when shown any Phase 2 and 3 grapheme.

• Find any Phase 2 and 3 grapheme, from a display, when given the phoneme

• Be able to blend and read words containing adjacent consonants e.g. lost, thank, scrunch

• Be able to segment and spell words containing adjacent consonants

• Be able to read the tricky words some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out, like, little, what

• Be able to spell the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are

• Write most letter-shapes correctly.

Frinton and Bentley

By the end of Year 1:

Most children will be secure within Phase 5 and will have passed their Phonics Assessment Check.

Children should be able to:

• Respond ‘speedily’ with correct sound to graphemes for all 40+ phonemes, including alternative sounds for graphemes for any given sound and write the common graphemes

• Name letters of alphabet in order and use letter names to distinguish between alternative spellings of the same sound.

• Read and spell common exception words (tricky words), noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word

• Spell the days of the week

• Read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words

• Read words with contractions e.g. I’m, I’ll, we’ll and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s)

• Read words containing taught GPCs and –s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er and –est endings

• Use spelling rules for -s, -es as the plural marker for nouns and the third person singular marker for verbs

• Use prefix un- when spelling

• Use -ing, -ed, -er and -est where no change is required in the spelling of the root words.

• Read automatically all the words in the list of 100 high-frequency words

• Accurately spell most of the words in the list of 100 high frequency words

• Write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words using the GPCs and common exception words taught so far

• Re-read what they have written to check that it makes sense

By the end of Year 2:

By the end of Year 2 all children will be secure in their phonics (unless specific learning need identified) and most children expected or above in their reading/spelling.

•Read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes

• Read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the graphemes as above

• Read common suffixes

• Read further common exception words taught. 

• Segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many words correctly

• Check and correct their own work

• Spell common exception words accurately.

• Spell words with contracted forms

• Use the possessive apostrophe (singular)

• Distinguish between homophones and near-homophones

• Add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly, -tion.

• Apply suffixes where change is needed to the root word –s, -es, -er, -est –ing, -ed, -y.

• Apply rules and guidance as listed in English Appendix 1

• Apply their phonological, morphological and graphic knowledge if they become stuck on a spelling e.g. to be able to select the right long vowel grapheme

• Recognise tricky bits in words e.g., the unusual spelling of /oo/ in beautiful.

• Write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words using the GPCs, common exception words and punctuation taught.