"One of the greatest gifts adults can give is to read to children" Carl Sagan

Phonics is a huge part of EYFS and is an essential aspect of the curriculum that will enable your child to thrive at school. Phonics works hand-in-hand with other areas of the curriculum such as, writing and reading. 

At Stanton-in-Peak, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.

We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.

Implementation

Daily phonics lessons

• We teach phonics for 20 minutes a day. Each Friday, we review the week’s teaching to help children become fluent readers.
• In Reception and year 1 Children are assessed regularly then placed into phonics groups. Following this, they are taught to read, write and spell words in the specific and suitable Phase needed to help address misconceptions and allow pupils to make progress.

Interventions lessons ensure every child learns to read

• Any child who needs additional practice has phonics interventions. These interventions match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras to avoid cognitive overload.
• We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds assessments on Phonics Tracker to identify the gaps in their phonic knowledge and teach to these.
• If any child has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics interventions to address specific reading/writing gaps.

Phonics at home

At Stanton-in-Peak C of E Primary School, we have an open door policy which enables our staff and parents to develop successful relationships that help support and nurture our children. This means we are able to help our parents develop their own phonetic knowledge, so they are more able to effectively support their child’s phonetic development at home.

In EYFS, we hold a phonics meeting for parents, as well as individual parents meetings. In the phonics meetings, we share how phonics works, the best ways to help your child read and write as well as important information about testing and age expectations. In all classes, we share sound mats, word book marks, ideas for reading and other resources throughout the year. 

• How to pronounce phonics sounds. A video for parents