ENGLISH – PHONICS 

Why do we teach what we teach? (Our intent)

At Oak Green School we have a structured and systematic approach to teaching literacy. We aim to create fluent readers, confident speakers and willing writers. We use the successful Read Write Inc. Phonics programme to teach our children early skills in reading, writing and spelling.

How do we teach it? (Our implementation)

All staff in the school are trained in teaching Read Write Inc. from Nursery to Year 6. Phonics is taught in Nursery through to year 2. Children who are not yet fluent readers or writers are given the opportunity to continue with RWinc. on a personalised programme. In Key Stage One RWI phonics is ability-grouped, so all children can benefit from tailored teaching, making maximum progress as a result.

Nursery children begin to focus on vocabulary through play, sentence-building and questioning. They then move on to writing the sound at the end of the summer term, only when a good pencil grip and confident mark making from children has been established. At Oak Green we focus on reading stories, singing and encouraging lots of role play to develop the children’s language skills.

From Reception the children are assessed in their sounds. We check what sounds the children know and if they are able to read words by sounding out each grapheme and blending it together, for example: c-a-t = cat. The children continue to learn how to blend words, read words with speed and write words in reception.

In Years 1-2 children learn new sounds that may contain 2 or 3 letters; this is called a diagraph ‘sh, ch, ee, oy’ or a trigraph ‘igh, air, ure’. As well as revising and learning new phonic sounds, the children will apply and develop their phonic and reading skills through reading a range of fully decodable fiction/non-fiction phonic books, matched to their phonic progression.

The Phonics Screening Check (PSC) is taken individually by all children in Year 1 in England. It is designed to give teachers and parents information on how their child is progressing in phonics. It will help to identify whether a child needs additional support at this stage so that they do not fall behind in this vital early reading skill.

What is the difference that this makes? (Our impact)

Through our approach to teaching phonics our children are able to progress year-on-year at a pace appropriate to the learner. At Oak Green we enable our children to: Learn to recognise the 44 sounds and their corresponding letter(s); Learn to read words using sound; blending; Learn to write the letter(s) which represent the 44 sounds; Learn to write words by saying the sounds