INTENT
At Latchford St James C of E School, the systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 to ensure all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We acknowledge that children need to be taught the key skills in segmenting and blending to be equipped with the knowledge to be able to complete the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1. We also value and encourage the pupils to read for enjoyment and recognise that this starts with the foundations of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending skills. Through phonics children learn to segment words to support their spelling ability and develop their writing skills, as well as blending sounds to read words.
IMPLEMENTATION
At Latchford St James C of E Primary School, we use the Department of Education approved ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ to deliver our daily phonics provision. This allows our phonics teaching and learning to be progressive from our Nursery class up to Year 2.
Planning for phonics is separate from the English planning and is recorded on the school’s phonics planning format. It should be based on the needs of the children and show differentiation between each phonics group based on the children’s abilities and next steps.
IMPACT
Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using the statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.
