Phonics

How we teach Phonics

We follow the FFT's Success for All Phonics programme. The programme is used daily from the beginning of Reception, enabling children to make a smooth transition to KS1. The daily lesson plans cover all the main Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs) and Common Exception Words (CEWs) to provide children with the phonic knowledge and skills required for success in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. Daily lessons are carefully sequenced and introduce new learning in an easy to follow progression.

Success for All Phonics provides 68 fully decodable reading books (Shared Readers) that are used in daily Guided Reading lessons and are aligned to the phonics sessions that the children are being taught. Parents will also have access to hese shared readers via an online link. The children will take home a book from school to share with parents, but this will be for pleasure and for parents to support the children's reading as the text may not be phonetically decodable for them.

As the children progress through school, they may need extra catch up sessions using the Success for All Phonics programme. Tutoring with the Lightning Squad is used for children who need further support after Year 1 to support their progress in phonics and reading.

In Phonics lessons, the children:

• Learn new Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs)
• Practise the skills of blending and segmenting as new GPCs are introduced
• Learn Common Exception Words by sight
• Engage in a variety of activities to support their learning in fun and memorable ways
• Link pictures and mnemonics to support the learning of each GPC and help them to remember it