Phonics
Phonics Intent
At Stroud Valley, we believe that phonics provides the essential foundations for reading and writing and is a vital life skill. We are committed to ensuring that every child becomes a confident, fluent reader and writer by delivering high-quality, systematic phonics teaching through the Unlocking Letters and Sounds programme. We create a positive and engaging learning environment where every child is encouraged to succeed, recognising that all children can become successful readers with the right support and opportunities.
Through daily, structured phonics lessons, children develop the knowledge and skills needed to decode unfamiliar words, read with increasing fluency and spell accurately. We provide opportunities for children to apply their phonics learning through reading and writing across the curriculum, building confidence and independence as they progress. We understand that children learn at different rates, so we use regular assessment to ensure teaching is closely matched to individual needs and provide timely support where needed.
We foster a love of reading by giving children access to high-quality, fully decodable books that closely match their phonic knowledge, enabling them to experience success from the very beginning of their reading journey. By working closely with families and promoting reading both at school and at home, we help children develop confidence, enjoyment and resilience as readers.
Our aim is for every child to leave the early stages of their education with the secure phonics knowledge, reading fluency and confidence needed to access the wider curriculum, develop a lifelong love of reading and achieve their full potential.
Phonics Scheme
We use Unlocking Letters and Sounds which was validated by the DfE in December 2021.
We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave Reception being able to apply the phonemes taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4.
In Year 1 through Phase 5a, b and c, they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes and additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. In Year 1 all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check.
In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps.
For further details please see the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression which is attached.
To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 interventions. These include GPC recognition and blending and segmenting interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have an impact.
Reading Scheme
At Stroud Valley Community Primary School, we promote a 'phonics first' approach and in both our guided reading sessions at school and in the books children take home, texts are very closely matched to a child's current phonics knowledge so that every child can experience real success in their reading.
In these crucial early stages of reading we primarily use books from Ransom Reading Stars Phonics, to ensure complete fidelity to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression we follow.
Once children progress beyond decodable texts, they move onto our book scheme so that they can continue to progress in their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills to become avid, expert readers.