English- Phonics
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.” (Dr. Seuss)
Phonics Curriculum Intent
At Our Lady’s, we recognise that strong phonics knowledge is the foundation of successful reading and spelling. Our phonics curriculum is carefully sequenced to ensure that pupils develop secure, confident decoding and encoding skills from their earliest days in school. We intend for every child to become a fluent reader who can tackle unfamiliar words with confidence, comprehend what they read and apply spelling rules accurately in their writing.
We aim to build pupils’ linguistic confidence through a consistent, systematic approach to phonics that supports all aspects of English learning. By explicitly teaching phonemes, grapheme–phoneme correspondences and spelling patterns, we ensure that pupils have the key building blocks for literacy. Pupils are encouraged to apply their phonics knowledge in meaningful reading and writing contexts so that skills are embedded and transferable.
Above all, we want pupils to enjoy reading, feel successful and be equipped with the phonetic understanding they need to access the wider curriculum and beyond.
Please watch this link below for a brief description of RWI Phonics:
Implementation
We start the systematic teaching of phonics throughout the Early Years Foundation Stage. The 
children learn to recognise the shape of letters and the sound they make. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters.
Children are taught to:
- say the pure sounds ('mmm' not 'muh', 'sss' not 'suh' etc. see link below to hear pure sounds) to decode letter/sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly and use their phonic knowledge and skills to see a letter, or group of letters and say the corresponding sound
- say words by sounding-blending (Fred talk) eg. m-a-t = mat, sh-o-p = shop. Children then learn to read words by saying the sounds in a word then blending them together to say the whole word.
- read ‘tricky’ (red words) on sight such as ‘come,’ ‘was,’ ‘said’ and ‘you’. These are words where one part of the word is trying to trick the children. We teach them to look at the word and spot the part that is trying to trick us.
- understand what they read
- read aloud with fluency and expression
- spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words. They use ‘Fred Fingers’ to say each of the sounds they can hear in a word before they attempt to write it.
- develop pencil control, form letters correctly and acquire good handwriting
Inclusion & Adaptive Teaching
Our phonics programme is designed to be ambitious and accessible for all learners, including those with SEND, language delay or other barriers to literacy. Adaptive teaching strategies ensure that every child can engage with phonics lessons confidently and make sustained progress.
Adaptations may include:
Structured small-group interventions tailored to pupil needs
Multi-sensory teaching approaches to support memory and recall
Pre-teaching or revisiting key phonemes and graphemes before whole-class lessons
Additional repetition and practice of tricky sounds at pupils’ individual pace
Use of visual prompts, finger-tracking, sound mats and kinaesthetic activities
Targeted adult support to model articulation and blending strategies
Alternative means of recording responses for pupils who struggle with fine motor skills
Regular assessment to identify gaps early and inform personalised support
These inclusive strategies help ensure that all pupils can participate fully in phonics learning and build confidence in reading and spelling.
Read Write Inc Progression of sounds
Read Write Inc is taught in sets with all children starting on set 1. Please see the images below to view the sounds in each set.
Sound families
We learn to distinguish between the sounds that sound the same but have different spellings. E.g., we learn that , and all sound the same and we learn the correct spelling for words like day, rain, cake, play, train, shake.
The Phonic Screening Check Year 1
In the summer term, the government requires all the Year 1 children to do a National Phonics screen. The children who require it will get extra support in order to enable them to successfully pass this screen. All the children who do not achieve the pass mark will continue to get support with their phonics in Year 2 in order to give them the best chance of achieving a pass when the retake the screen at the end of Year 2. Please watch the video clip below for more information.
Assessing Children's Progress
We use various ways to find out how the children are progressing in reading. Each half term the chil
dren in Year R and Year 1 are assessed in Phonics. They are then grouped accordingly to ensure they are always being taught at the correct level to provide challenge. In class we regularly assess how fluently and accurately the children can read words.
Children progress through a range of colour levels. Each level is carefully matched to your child's current phonic ability. This means children are able to read and access texts by themselves and quickly grow in speed and confidence. The progression through book levels is shown on the right.
Children who are at the same phonics level are grouped together for phonics however these groups are fluid and if a child makes faster progress they are swiftly moved to a different group.
Children who are not making the expected level of progress in phonics and reading will receive intervention support. We use Read Write Inc one-to-one tutoring for children from YR to Y2 who require extra phonics tuition to catch up with their peers.
Supporting your Child at Home
Family engagement in children reading at home is valued highly in our school. Reading at home is fun and gives children such a boost to their confidence and interest in learning to read.
Books are changed and sent home on a weekly basis. These books are carefully selected to link to the sounds and words taught in your child's phonics lessons throughout that week in school. We value open communication with our families and invite home reading comments from you in your child’s the reading record.
An active role in supporting your child's reading can be taken through:
- Providing a book bag to keep books safe and weather-proof. It should be brought to school every day.
- Using the websites we have put on our own school website (below) to support your child before they are reading Read Write Inc books
- Hearing your child read at least three times a week, praising success and supporting their efforts.
- Not worrying if your child's reading book seems too easy! They should be able to read book bag books speedily and with expression, because they will contain words and phrases already taught in lessons that week.
- Using useful websites that link to our school's reading programme, such as:
Parents - Ruth Miskin Phonics Training
The website above has a tab ‘Parents’ at the top of the page and is full of videos and information for you to look at to further your understanding of Read Write Inc. We have listed below some of the parent films on this page that are particularly helpful.
- Introduction to daily phonics lessons
- How to say the sounds
- Blending sound books
- Red ditty books
- Phonics screening check
- How to say the sounds correctly
Other useful websites:
http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/ - includes games to play
http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html