Phonics

Intent

At Our Lady and St Edward’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that strong reading skills are essential for every child’s success. Reading underpins learning across the curriculum, and high-quality phonics teaching provides children with the knowledge and skills they need to become confident, fluent readers.

Our aim is for every child to develop secure phonics knowledge, accurate decoding and increasing reading fluency, enabling them to progress from learning to read to reading to learn. We ensure that all children, including those with SEND and those who require additional support, are given the teaching and opportunities they need to succeed.

Implementation

We follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, a validated systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme.

Before children begin Reception, they are introduced to early phonics through our Foundations for Phonics programme. Through a rich range of stories, rhymes, songs and games, children develop their listening and attention skills, oral blending and segmenting, vocabulary and awareness of sounds. This provides a strong foundation for the systematic phonics teaching that follows.

Phonics is taught daily in Reception and Year 1, with regular opportunities to revisit and practise previously taught Grapheme–Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs). Children develop their skills in decoding, blending, segmenting and applying their phonics knowledge to reading and writing.

Once children have secured the phonics knowledge needed to progress, they move on to the Bridge to Spelling programme. This supports children in applying their phonics knowledge to spelling and developing greater independence and accuracy in their writing.

Regular assessment enables us to identify children who need additional support. Targeted ‘Keep Up’ sessions provide additional practice and ensure that children can keep pace with the progression of the programme. From Year 2 onwards, children who have not yet secured the necessary phonics knowledge receive targeted support through the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-up programme.

Children take home fully decodable reading books, carefully matched to the phonics they have been taught, so that they can practise reading successfully and independently. They also take home a sharing book to enjoy with an adult, supporting vocabulary development, comprehension and a love of reading.

We work closely with parents to support children’s phonics learning at home. Workshops, guidance and resources from Little Wandle, including pronunciation guides and videos, are provided to help parents feel confident in supporting their child’s phonics and reading journey.

Impact

Children's phonics knowledge is assessed regularly through ongoing formative assessment, reading practice and phonics assessments. This allows teachers to identify gaps quickly and provide appropriate support.

By the end of Year 1, our aim is for children to have developed secure phonics knowledge and the confidence to decode unfamiliar words, preparing them for fluent reading as they progress through school.

We monitor pupils' progress carefully to ensure that children who need additional support receive timely intervention, including targeted Keep Up and Rapid Catch-up provision where appropriate. Our ultimate aim is for all children to become confident, accurate and enthusiastic readers.

Supporting Phonics at Home

 A link to the Little Wandle website, together with a number of supportive resources, can be found below.

These include pronunciation guides, information videos and other helpful materials to support with practising phonics with your child at home.