Phonics
Our ultimate aim in the teaching of early reading is for children to leave Year 2 fluent, confident and independent readers being able to apply their knowledge and skills across the curriculum. We place a great deal of importance and emphasis on the teaching of early reading.
Phonics is an integral part of early reading and writing. Phonics is developed for early readers to enable them to become skilled at thinking about and manipulating sounds in words; over time this enables them to become skilled at decoding unfamiliar words to read and encoding words in order to write. With these key skills, children are in an excellent position to access the wider curriculum. Teachers give children sufficient opportunity in reading books that are closely matched to the phonics programme, both at school and at home. The love and enjoyment for reading is reinforced in the rich, broad diet of texts to excite and challenge.
‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ is the systematic synthetic phonics program that St Teresa’s has adopted to support our teaching of phonics across the school. All pupils in Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage One participate in daily phonics lessons which are led by trained members of staff. The ongoing assessment of pupils’ phonics progress is sufficiently frequent and detailed to identify any pupil who is falling behind the program’s pace. If they do fall behind, targeted support is given immediately. Children in KS2 who have not achieved the required standard in phonics also receive daily interventions.
Phonics and Early Reading Policy (from March 2022)
Parental Support
Click on the link to watch a video supporting the teaching of phonics sounds