Phonics Policy
Park Hall Academy Phonics Policy Introduction I am writing to convey my warmest congratulations to you, your staff and your pupils for the very high standards of achievement in this year s phonic check. The Department for Education wants to ensure that every child develops a firm grasp of phonics so I was obviously delighted to see you results. To be in the top 5% of schools, with at least 95% of pupils achieving the expected standard in the check, is a tremendous achievement and points to a high standard of phonics teaching in your school. Nick Gibb MP- Minister of State for School Reform. Aims and Objectives It is our aim to ensure that our children: develop speaking and listening skills as preparatory to learning phonic knowledge and skills; receive high quality phonic work at the stage they are working at become fluent readers by the age of six. Principles Being able to read is the most important skill children will learn during their early schooling and has far-reaching implications for lifelong confidence and well-being. The independent review of early reading conducted by Jim Rose confirmed that high quality phonic work should be the prime means for teaching children how to read and spell words. The review also highlighted the importance of developing from the earliest stages children s speaking and listening skills, ensuring that beginner readers are ready to get off to a good start in phonic work by the age of five. Such work should be set within a broad and rich language curriculum.
Letters and Sounds is the program followed by Park Hall Primary School to help teach phonics to children from Nursery to Year 1 and beyond to pupils who require ongoing phonics teaching. All pupils from Nursery to Year 1 are taught in ability sets to ensure that teaching is tailored to the individual needs. Groupings are fluid allowing for children to move from one group to the next as necessary to support their progress. Phonics Bug (Pearson) an ICT based teaching tool is also used throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 to teach phonics in an interactive and engaging way. Practices and Procedures Phonics lessons comprise of four parts Revisit and Review, Teach, Practice and Apply. Nursery (F1) Phase One is taught from Autumn 2 within Nursery. The children are taught; General sound discrimination Rhythm and rhyme Alliteration Voice Sounds Oral Blending and Segmenting Phonic sessions are taught daily as a discrete lesson, in small, differentiated family groups. Teaching is multi-sensory and is applied throughout the nursery curriculum, to ensure the maximum retention of the taught skills. Phase 2 is introduced to children who are ready to begin this phase. Reception (F2) Phase 2, 3 and 4 are taught within Reception. The children are taught using the Letters and Sounds program in a multi-sensory approach. Quick words are introduced throughout the phases, decodeable and nondecodable to help the children to be able to read sight words/ books fluently and with confidence.
Phase 2 reading individual letters and beginning to blend to read VC, CVC words. learning to reverse the process, to segment spoken words into phonemes and select the letter to represent those phonemes magnetic letters, writing letters, tracing in multi-sensory equipment etc. Phase 3 sounds represented by more than one letter, learning one representation for at least 42 of the 44 sounds. Phase 4 reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants. Many children may be capable of taking this step much earlier, in which case they are not held back from doing so. Year 1 Initial revision of Phase 3/4is carried out before the teaching of Phase 5 is implemented throughout Year 1. Phase 5 Phase 5 phonemes Reading and spelling of quick words Phonemes can be spelled in more than one way Most graphemes can represent more than one phoneme, (alternative pronunciations and alternative spellings). During Year 1 all pupils (unless disallowed), undertake the Year 1 Phonics Check to assess their phonic knowledge. Any pupil who does not achieve the published threshold score will continue to receive discrete phonic support in Year 2 and re-take the Phonic check in Year 2. Year 2
Any children who continue to require phonics teaching at Phase 1-5 will continue to receive phonic intervention at their level in group interventions. Whole class teaching will continue to reinforce Phase 5 teaching and application of phonemes taught and quick words, in reading and writing. Spelling rules and patterns, in accordance to the new English curriculum are taught at this stage. Parents/ Carers Phonic workshops are carried out in Foundation and Year 1 to support parents/ carers in understanding phonics and the schools approach. It also introduces the technical terminology, which is used consistently with the children in school e.g. phoneme, grapheme, trigraph etc. Parents regularly receive information to inform them which phase their child is working within and the progress they have made. In Year 1 parents receive a phoneme frame, whiteboard pen, phoneme mats and information leaflet. Assessment All pupils are closely monitored throughout phonic stages. Data is monitored by class teachers/ practitioners each half term and groupings are reviewed to ensure children are receiving the correct amount of challenge. Data is recorded termly on to DC Pro for formal analysis. Pupils working below their expected Phase will receive additional intervention support. Appendix Phase 2
Quick words the, to, no, go Phase 3 Quick words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are Spell the quick words the, no, go, to, I Phase 4 Reading and writing words and sentences using one or more high frequency words and words containing adjacent consonants (CVCC/ CCVC words). Quick words some, one, said, some, do, so, were, when, have, little, out, like, little, what.
Quick words to spell he, she, we, me, be. was, my, you, her, they, all, are Phase 5
Quick words oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, asked, called, would, should, could. Decodable quick words don t, day, here, old, house, made, saw, I m, about, came, very, by, your, make, put, time. Signed : J Preston Date: September 2015 Review Date: September 2017