Phonics trends

Year 1 Phonics trends

Phonics Rationale

A strong emphasis on high quality teaching of phonics can substantially reduce the number of children at risk of falling below age-related expectations for reading.

Whole class phonics teaching follows the suggested four-part structure of Revisit and Review – Teach – Practise –Apply (assess) as suggested initially from Letters and Sounds and adapted within the Bug Club teaching structure. At Heatherlands, through staff training and ‘high quality phonics sessions’, ‘children’s acquisition of speaking and listening skills, and phonic knowledge and skills are greatly enhanced.’  (Independent Review of the teaching of early reading2006).

Bug Club provides a sequence of learning termly and weekly which sets out clear expectations of pupils’ progress in phonics.

The pace and planning materials can be edited to better suit the pace of the children, e.g. by spending longer on areas where they need more support. The recommended Bug Club Phonics schedule follows a Teach, Practice, Review, Assess, Track, Consolidate, [Keep-Up] method. 

The termly plans are flexible resources, as we may need to adapt the pace/depth based on insights from our teaching. The Earkly Years plans show teaching starting at 'Week 1' to reflect the first week of the programme, but this 'Week 1' start can begin from Week 2 of the term itself, or whenever the children are ready to start Phase 2 teaching.

Children develop many different skills while learning phonics, however, some children will need additional support to reinforce and develop different areas of their phonics understanding, particularly those with SEND. Bug Club Phonics offers a wealth of flexible keep-up activities designed to meet the needs of individual students and classrooms. We are dedicated to ensuring that any children who may fall behind or are vulnerable are identified swiftly and are supported within our keep up programme. The sequence sets out the pace at which we expect a typical child to progress through the phonics programme. Those children who are identified as not being on track, through our formative and summative assessments, receive interventions to enable them to ‘keep up’ with their peers by identifying gaps and making it clear where targeted teaching is needed.

Aims

Our aims are for all children at Heatherlands Primary School to:

• Be taught high-quality systematic phonic lessons
• Learn the correspondence between graphemes in written language and phonemes in spoken language (GPC)
• Be able to orally blend and segment
• Have knowledge of the alphabetic code and skills for blending for reading
• Have knowledge of the alphabetic code and skills for segmenting for spelling
• Have a bank of common exception words which they can decode, using a 'phonics first' approach
• Understand and use the technical vocabulary related to phonics
• Have their progress tracked through effective assessment, to enable teachers to make informed decisions about planning for the next steps
• Have a rich and varied environment which they can access to support their phonic knowledge and application
• Have access to books that are phonetically decodable through Phases 1 to 5, alongside books that develop and support other strategies for reading

Action and Implementation

• In Early Years children will be taught phonics through the teaching of the Bug Club Phonics scheme, following the Bug Club phonics sequence of learning
• Children in Year 1 continue to follow the phonics sequence of learning, using the Bug Club Phonics scheme, until they are secure at phase 5
• Children in Year 2 continue to have daily phonics lessons and those who were not secure at phase 5 when leaving year 1 or who did not pass the phonics screening check receive additional phonics intervention sessions
• Children from Year 2 to Year 6 will revisit and expand on their phonic knowledge through the teaching of GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling) lessons

Early Years and Key Stage 1

• Daily phonics lessons, using the Bug Club Phonics sequence of learning, alongside the National Curriculum

Key Stage 2

• Daily SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) activities included in English teaching linked to writing
• Where appropriate targeted phonics lessons/activities depending on the need of the children
• Reading intervention groups where appropriate
• No Nonsensne spelling lessons (3 times per week) with focus on specific spelling patterns

Role of Parents and Carers

Phonics is most effective when children are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and books.

Parents play a vital role in helping with this and at Heatherlands Primary School, we endeavour to support parents with this through regular communications such as home learning activities, parents’ evenings etc.

We also lead phonic workshops in Early Years and Key Stage 1, with a focus on developing the parents’ subject knowledge in the teaching of phonics and supporting them to work alongside their child in phonic activities.  

In addition, parents are given resource materials, suggested web links, video tutorials and strategies to help their child at home with phonics at these events. In Early Years, parents are invited into their child’s class for ‘Phonics Thursday’ during the Autumn term, where they have a phonics lesson with their child. Using the Bug Club Phonics online platform, weekly interactive games and activities linked to blending and segmenting are assigned to each child to consolidate that week's learning. 

Other websites to support practice phonic skills

www.phonicsplay.co.uk

Phonics Play – Phonics activities and games

This website is used in school. There are some free games that can be played or a subscription can be paid to access the full site. By the end of Reception, children should be Phase 3 Secure By the end of Year 1 children should be Phase 5 Secure

www.phonicsbloom.co.uk

Phonics Bloom– Phonics activities and games

By the end of Reception, children should be Phase 3 Secure By the end of Year 1 children should be Phase 5 Secure

www.letters-and-sounds.com

Letters and Sounds – Phonics activities and games

By the end of Reception, children should be Phase 3 Secure By the end of Year 1 children should be Phase 5 Secure. There is also high frequency word lists to practice.

www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

Teach your Monster to Read – Reading and phonics support

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

 Cbeebies Alphablocks – Reading and phonics support

Useful web links for the teaching of phonics:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMyssfAUx0&list=PLCLKSf1kRDSRP6OCf-lm0wAr2s7Y1LfkO