Phonics

At Gurnard Primary School, we believe that all children can become fluent readers. This is why we teach reading through the engaging ‘Song of Sounds’ scheme; a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We immerse our students in a vibrant learning experience that cultivates phonetic awareness and literacy skills. This journey begins as soon as children start in Reception and follows the Song of Sounds progression to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the alphabetic code, fostering a strong foundation for reading and writing success.  This programme is woven into our curriculum, creating an environment where respect for language, achievement in phonics and a sense of belonging to a community of learners are paramount. 

Song of Sounds is a multi-component, multi-sensory, phonics programme. It is teacher-led, hands-on and interactive, with a wide variety of games and activities that reinforce learning.

IMPLEMENTATION:

Twice daily lessons 

High quality Phonics lessons are taught daily in Reception and Key Stage 1. A 20 minute session is taught to the whole class at the beginning of the day. This same session is then repeated later in the day – this embeds the phonics skills taught and increases children’s confidence through over-learning of sounds and words. Phonics lessons are delivered to the whole class which means children are taught alongside their peers and taught and assessed by their class teachers. Song of Sounds is a multi-sensory programme so lessons are hands-on and interactive; incorporating music, movement and practical activities. As lessons are fun, this means children’s confidence and self-esteem is high.

Big Phonics Sessions

Once a week, Reception and Key Stage 1 classes have a ‘Big Phonics’ session. This lesson is an extended session where children have the chance to embed what they have learnt during the week, but also revisits previously taught phonemes to ensure children are constantly reinforcing what they have learnt through the whole programme. These weekly sessions see children playing games and engaging in practical activities. It is a chance for them to develop and apply their reading and writing skills and increases confidence in their phonics ability.

Phonics Challenges 

Our children are provided with a variety of opportunities to develop and extend their phonics skills. In Reception and Key Stage 1, classrooms have a Phonics area and children are provided with daily and weekly Phonics challenges to complete. The challenges ensure children can apply and consolidate the Phonics knowledge they have been taught. Some of these activities are completed independently whilst some are supported by an adult.

Phonic Displays and Reading Corners

All reception classrooms and Key Stage 1 classrooms will have a Phonics display which shows their stage sounds and the previous stage sounds. Classrooms will also display sound mats and tricky word mats. This ensures Song of Sounds is embedded throughout the curriculum and children can use their phonics knowledge within all lessons. Key Stage 2 classrooms will also display sound mats for those children that need extra support with their reading and writing. 

All classrooms throughout the school will have a book corner. This is an engaging and inviting area where children are encouraged to go to read a book and develop their love for reading. All book areas have been provided with fiction and non-fiction books that are age-appropriate and cover a range of genres and traditional and modern stories.

Assessment and Interventions 

Delivering Phonics lessons twice a day ensures class teachers can formatively assess children and identify anyone in the lesson that needs further support. These children are provided with immediate interventions and support to ensure they can keep up and progress as they should. 

Class teachers change children’s reading books weekly, this envolves hearing them read in small groups or on a one to one basis. Again, this ensures teachers are aware of the child’s reading attainment and can then give daily, targeted support where needed. 

Song of Sounds have regular assessment points planned into the programme. These assessments look at the children’s reading and writing ability in relation to the sounds and tricky words they have been taught. Teachers then use this assessment as a tool to identify any gaps that need either whole class, small group or one to one support and interventions. 

The phonics lead will carry out a practice Phonics Screening checks with all Year 1 children every half term and any Year 2 children that did not pass the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. The phonics lead and class teachers moniter the progress of children and again identify any gaps - interventions will be put in place to support these children and to ensure they progress. 

Inclusion

In Phonics, the daily sessions and the 'Big Phonics' starters are designed to be delivered to the whole class. This ensures an inclusive approach, as the class works together to learn new skills, led by the class teacher. A whole class approach to Phonics means that children's confidence and self-esteem is high. This is because children are taught alongside their peers and are assessed by their own class teacher (in contrast to children being withdrawn from the class and grouped by a variety of ages with different teachers and support staff).

The 'Song of Sounds' scheme is a multi-sensory programme, this means it is very hands-on and interactive with music, movement and practical activities. This ensures children enjoy the phonics learning process.

Planning and Progression

Below shows the phonemes and tricky words taught in each year group:

Stage 1 (Reception) Phoneme Finder:

Stage 2 (Year 1) Phoneme Finder:

Stage 3 (Year 2) Phoneme Finder:

Tricky Words

Tricky words’ are words that cannot easily be decoded (‘sounded out’ and read). This is because some of the sounds in the words are spelt in an unusual way or children have not yet learnt the graphemes to decode them. It is important for children to be able to read these words as they are among the most common words in English. 

Tricky words are taught in a clearly-defined, incremental sequence and constantly revised and consolidated throughout the programme, below is the stage in which the words are introduced.

Stage 1 Tricky Words:

Stage 2 Tricky Words:

Phonics – Inclusion

In Phonics, the daily sessions and the 'Big Phonics' starters are designed to be delivered to the whole class. This ensures an inclusive approach, as the class works together to learn new skills, led by the class teacher. A whole class approach to Phonics means that children's confidence and self-esteem is high. This is because children are taught alongside their peers and are assessed by their own class teacher (in contrast to children being withdrawn from the class and grouped by a variety of ages with different teachers and support staff).

The 'Song of Sounds' scheme is a multi-sensory programme, this means it is very hands-on and interactive with music, movement and practical activities. This ensures children enjoy the phonics learning process.

Stage 3 / Year 2 Progression

Reading Books

Our first reading scheme at Gurnard Primary uses the Collins Big Cat Phonics books. These books are for the children in Reception and Key Stage 1 and some specific children in Key Stage 2 that have been identified as needing further phonics support. The reading scheme then moves on to Big Cat Fluency books - that focus on developing the children’s fluency when reading. 

The Big Cat Phonics Books are aligned with the Song of Sounds progression of sounds and tricky words. We ensure that all phonics books are matched to the child’s phonics ability and will contain sounds and tricky words that the child has been taught. These books are fully decodable for the children and helps build children’s confidence and fluency with reading. New books are shared with children by their class teacher, who goes through all the sounds and tricky words contained in the text. Children then take their reading book home and are encouraged to read it a few times at home. We encourage children to read their book at least three times. The first time for decoding, the second time for fluency and the third time for comprehension. Children are also heard read regularly by an adult in school and priority readers are heard daily in school. Children are assessed by teachers every week when they hear children read and also half termly using the Song of Sounds assessments. Reading book levels are then adjusted accordingly to ensure the books match the child’s ability. 

Below shows the progression of the Big Cat Phonics reading books:

IMPACT:

Children will be confident and resilient in tackling unfamiliar words by applying learnt knowledge and skills to segment, blend and read words which are real and nonsense. 

Children will develop a love for reading.

Children will make progress through the different stages of phonics in line with Year Group expectations and make progress from their own individual starting points. 

Children will demonstrate high levels of engagement in phonics and will apply their phonological knowledge when reading and writing and use the sound mats and working walls to assist them when needed but become increasingly independent in this process. 

Children will have an increased recognition of tricky words and high frequency words when reading and apply these when writing. 

Children with SEND will develop phonic skills and knowledge and they will develop their ability to apply this across the curriculum which will help to prepare them for the next stage in their education.