Phonics Intent:

Our scheme for teaching phonics is Twinkl Phonics which is a DFE validated phonics programme that applies a systematic, synthetic approach to teaching phonics, with clear expectations that are laid out term by term from Nursery to Year 2. A clear progression ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. Our rigorous, consistent phonics teaching ensures that children are taught the key skills of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending and are equipped with the knowledge to be able to tackle any unfamiliar words that they read, complete the phonics check at the end of year 1 and to write and spell words confidently. We also model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum

Nursery:

Children in Nursery will complete Level 1 of phonics. Throughout Level 1, young learners develop the knowledge, skills and understanding to use and discriminate between auditory, environmental and instrumental sounds through 7 Aspects. These include; Environmental Sound Discrimination, Instrumental Sound Discrimination, Body Percussion, Rhythm and Rhyme, Alliteration, Voice Sounds, Oral Blending and Segmenting. By the end of Level 1, children will have had opportunities to:

• listen attentively;

• enlarge their vocabulary;

• speak confidently to adults and other children;

• discriminate between different sounds including phonemes;

• reproduce audibly the phonemes they hear in words;

• orally segment words into phonemes.

Reception:

Children in Reception will complete Level 2, 3 & 4 of phonics. Throughout Level 2 children will learn the first 19 most commonly-used letters and the sounds they make; move on from oral blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting with letters; introduce some tricky words for reading. Throughout Level 3 children will learn another 25 graphemes, including consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs and trigraphs so that children can represent 42 phonemes with a grapheme; continue to practise CVC blending and segmentation; apply their knowledge of blending and segmenting to reading and spelling simple two-syllable words and captions. Throughout Level 4 children will consolidate their knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words, especially digraphs and trigraphs; introduce words with adjacent consonants - CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CCCVC, CVCCC, CCCVCC, CCVCCC; learn polysyllabic words and learn to read and spell some more tricky words.

Year 1:

Childre in Year 1 will complete Level 5 of phonics. Throughout Level 5 the children will learn alternative graphemes for known phonemes; learn alternative pronunciations of known graphemes; introduce split digraphs; introduce suffixes and prefixes; learn to read and spell more common exception words. In the Summer term they will complete the Phonics Screening Check to assess whether they have reached the expected standard.

Year 2:

Children in Year 2 will complete Level 6 of phonics. Throughout Level 6 children will develop their knowledge of spelling patterns and best-guess grapheme selection; learn more alternative graphemes for known phonemes; learn more alternative pronunciations for known graphemes; introduce the /zh/ phoneme; develop an understanding of the spelling rules for adding suffixes and prefixes; introduce homophones/near homophones and contractions; learn to spell more common exception words; develop their understanding of grammar rules; learn effective writing techniques including editing and proofreading and learn more strategies to read and write independently.