Implementation

The Teaching of Phonics

At Wynndale, we start to teach reading through a Phonics programme called ‘Storytime Phonics.’ Storytime phonics matches letters and sounds and links to our whole school philosophy whereby we teach reading through carefully chosen high quality texts. In preparation for StoryTime Phonics children entering in F1 are immersed in daily Phase 1 phonics which provides them with a good starting point for F2. In Foundation and Y1, the children have daily phonics lessons where they learn to read by segmenting the sounds and then blending them together, as well as learning the tricky words. All children who are learning the phonetic code, practise their new reading skills by taking home phonetically decodable books closely linked to their increasing Phonic knowledge. We use a range of books from the following schemes: Collins Big Cat Phonics, Rising Stars, Project X and Phonics Bug Club. The children also take home a sharing book, which is read to them by an adult at home. This gives them an opportunity to access challenging vocabulary, work on their comprehension and understanding of text and help to develop their love of reading.

Assessment of Phonics

Children will be assessed on their progress using the assessment tool Phonics Tracker. Every half term the children will have a summative assessment to ensure that children who are falling behind or accelerated learning can be quickly identified and interventions put into place.

Children in Year one will be screened using the National Assessment materials. If the children in Year one fail the screening, they will be retested when they are in Year two. Daily interventions falling into this group will take place in Year two.

Phonic interventions take place for children in other year groups who still need to practise their phonic skills.