We will teach children aural discrimination, phonemic awareness and rhyme awareness. We will teach the children to read and write all 44 graphemes in the English language. We will expect the children to apply their phonic skills in all curriculum areas.
The school follows the systematic approach laid out in My Letters and Sounds (Schofield and Sims 2022) which we have adopted to meet the requirements of the new National Curriculum. Staff follow a school wide progression for phonics which ensure progression and effective, high- quality teaching.
Discrete phonics lessons take place daily across Reception, Key Stage 1 and where necessary Key Stage 2. They follow the structure of ‘Review, Teach, Practice, Apply’ to ensure that children are consolidating phonic knowledge and skills over time and that they are able to apply them in context. Consequently, wherever possible, links between phonics knowledge and understanding are made to learning in both Reading and Writing. These lessons proceed at pace and incorporate a consistent approach to engage the children. These activities are carefully chosen to ensure that children develop their skills in aural discrimination and phonemic and rhyme awareness, blending and segmenting as well as grapheme- phoneme correspondence.
Children are taught in year groups. As children progress at different rates, we hold intervention groups to support those that need it using the same scheme.
All phonics teachers use a consistent approach using a Power Point to lead the lesson. Wherever possible the children are given relevant fully phonically decodable books from My Letters and Sounds (Schofield and Sims 2022) and other fully phonically decodable books that help to consolidate the sounds that they are learning. There should also be age and phase appropriate displays in both Reception and Key Stage 1 classrooms and intervention rooms to support the teaching and application of phonics in Reading and Writing.
Children who still need extra support to develop their phonic knowledge across Key Stage 1 and 2 are identified and targeted for intervention. There are a range of intervention strategies which the school uses and the most appropriate one is selected once a child’s needs have been assessed.
Assessment is carried out on a daily basis and feedback is given to class teachers when needed to inform future planning. It is a continuous process which is purposeful and allows us to meet the individual needs so that all children make good progress. The class teacher has the responsibility to carry out regular assessments at least once a term using the school phonic assessment linked to the progression document.
At the end of Year 1 we implement the phonics screening check as specified by the government. This assesses their knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence in conjunction with their skills in blending. This information is submitted to the LA. Children who do not meet the required level continue with daily phonics in Year 2. If there are any children who do not succeed a second time, intervention is planned and carried out to support their reading skills.
SUAT supports and leads in the set-up of new academies joining the partnership. The services provided by the central support function cover both educational and non-educational support. In terms of educational support, SUAT is linked to the School of Education of Staffordshire University, which is an outstanding ITT provider.