Phonics
Intent
It is our intention at Fishponds Church of England Academy to provide pupils with a high-quality education in English that will teach pupils to speak, read and write fluently so that they can communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively.
Through our phonics curriculum we intend to:
- Ensure pupils know all phonemes by the end of Year 1.
- Ensure children know the alphabetic code - the relationship between the sounds that can be identified in speech (phonemes) and the
letters used to represent them in writing (graphemes). - Ensure pupils are able to blend adjacent consonants.
- Ensure pupils can segment words by identifying each individual phoneme within the word.
- Ensure pupils can orally blend individual sounds together to form a word.
- Ensure pupils develop prosody - the rhythmic and intonational aspect of speech that manifests as expressive reading. It comprises timing, phrasing and intonation, and helps to convey meaning and add ‘life’ to reading.
- Ensure pupils develop fluency - the ability to read accurately with speed and expression.
Implementation
In Spring term 2021/2022, we introduced our new scheme of phonics - Little Wandle.
Phonics sessions are taught daily in EYFS and Year 1. Through these sessions, the children are given an opportunity to revise existing sounds and words they have learnt. They are then taught a new sound and given the opportunity to apply this sound and other key words/previously learnt sounds through reading sentences.
Children are supported with afternoon keep up sessions if they have found learning the sound for the day challenging.
Catch up sessions are used for those children who need further support.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Collins Big Cat phonetically decodable books are used to support children in consolidating their learning through reading at home.
Phonics Progression Overview
Assessment
The children’s progress in Phonics is tracked using a Phonics Tracker. This enables the teacher to identify children's individual gaps in phonetic knowledge.
The children’s progress in Phonics is also assessed towards the end of Year 1 using the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. This was introduced by the government in 2011-12. The screening is a statutory check of a child's understanding of phonics. The check combines a mixture of real and nonsense words, which the children read using their phonic knowledge. An example of the check published by the Department for Education can be found below:
Sample Phonics Screening Material
Phonics Screening Results:
| Year 1 Pass Rate | Year 2 Pass Rate(Including resits) | |
| 2018/2019 | 90% | 95% |
| 2017/2018 | 92% | 95% |
Impact
The impact of our teaching and assessment is that all of our children will learn to read and write fluently as a result of high-quality phonics teaching and assessment. Phonics will provide a foundation to reading and writing that will ensure that children learn to recognise phonemes and use them to segment and blend a variety of decodable words as well as develop speed and accuracy in reading and writing high-frequency and irregular words. This will enable each child to read and write with fluency and will ensure that children are able to master the skills to become confident fluent readers and writers.
Parent Workshops
We provide regular regular parent workshops to support reading at home.
Key Stage One Phonics Meeting 2022
Little Wandle have a helpful page to support parents in identifying what their children are learning in phonics and how each sound is pronounced. Please follow this link to view: https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/.
