Phonics

Phonics at Newton Leys Primary School

Early reading skills are taught through the systematic use of phonics using the Read Write Inc (RWI) scheme. The children are taught letter and sound correspondence and the skills of blending and segmenting sounds to help them read (decode) and spell (encode) words. This is done in a progressive and systematic way, with many opportunities to embed previous learning. Children are assessed every half term and placed in homogenous groups to ensure that their phonics teaching is pitched appropriately. Children will learn phonics in this group first thing in the morning every day and have opportunities throughout the day to apply this knowledge. If children are requiring support to learn sounds or blend, we provide extra practise either in small groups or through 1:1 interventions. Similarly, if needed, children can continue to access RWI phonics in lower Key Stage Two and the RWI Fresh Start programme in upper Key Stage 2 through regular interventions.

Phonics Screening Check

As required by our Government, all Year 1 children across England will take part in the Phonics Screening Check. This check comprises of a list of 40 words that children read one-to-one with a teacher. The list is a combination of both real and made up, nonsense (or ‘alien’) words which rely purely on using phonics to decode. This will further inform our continual assessment of the children’s phonic knowledge and the results of the check will be shared with parents/carers in the end of year report. A phonics workshop is held with Year 1 parents at the beginning of the academic year to discuss the Phonics Screening Check further.

How to support with phonics at home

We ask parents to be fully involved in their children’s reading journey. We hold yearly workshops with our Reception and Year One parents to explain how we teach phonics and then invite them to watch a phonics session in action with their child. Every week, the children will take home a home reader book that is exactly matched to their phonic knowledge to ensure they can succeed at reading. The half termly assessments help us to match books to the exact phonic understanding of each child. This book resource provides a varied choice of writing styles, genres and artwork styles at every level, enabling the children to become confident readers. Phonic books are changed weekly to enable the child to have repetition to support reading with accuracy, fluency, good comprehension and expression. Parents are informed what group their child has been placed in every half term and QR codes are sent home so parents can access videos on the Read Write Inc portal. These videos will recap the sounds that the children are learning in their phonics lessons at school and allow them to practise reading words that contain those sounds. Children are also issued with bookmarks linked to the phonics group they are in so they can practice reading non-decodable words at home.

If you are a parent and would like more information about how to support your child with phonics at home, please access the Read Write Inc website:

Letters with QR codes

Your child will bring a letter home with QR codes on each half term. This is to support you with what they are being taught at school. They are also attached on this page.

Dates for diary:

Wednesday 25^th September 2pm – Phonics information workshop for Reception

Wednesday 6^th November 2pm – Phonics Information workshop for Year One

Newton Leys Primary School & Nursery

Phonics

Letters with QR codes

Other helpful links:

Dates for diary: