George Grenville

Academy

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Phonics

Intent

At George Grenville Academy, the systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority. We value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become life- long readers. We also value and encourage the pupils to read for pleasure and recognise that this starts with learning the knowledge and skills essential for reading (letter-sound correspondences, blending and segmenting skills.)

Implementation

We systematically teach the essential skills needed for reading following the Sounds~Write phonics programme. Children throughout Reception and Key Stage 1 take part in daily phonics sessions. These sessions focus on key reading skills; decoding to read words and segmenting to spell words. During Phonics lessons, we also teach children to read and write ‘tricky words’. These are words that you may not be able to sound out just yet. We talk about the ‘tricky’ part of the word and encourage the children to ‘train their brain’ to remember the word.

Starting in Reception, we also listen to the children read each day, either as part of a group sharing a text or on a one to one basis. In EYFS and KS1, all children have home reading books which match their phonics knowledge and skills. In all year groups, children reading below age-related expectations receive targeted support.

Phonics is taught as a whole class but smaller groups might also have extra lessons for support

Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become truly independent, fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1 and develop a life- long love of reading. Attainment in reading is measured using statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage 1 and 2. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning. Children start with learning to read, leading to reading to learn. Therefore the impact of our phonics programme and reading curriculum is potentially one of the most powerful ways of improving outcomes for children in school and beyond, in the wider world.

Supporting your child at home

Click on the link to access some games to support you child with their phonics.

Phonics Play WeBsite

Click on links to access high frequency word lists.

Reading At Home

To start with, children will be given a phonics book to support their reading at home. The more children practise reading each day, the better readers they will eventually become so we really encourage our children to read each evening. For every 5 reads the children complete, they receive a sticker and a chance to enter a weekly reading raffle/ When they have mastered phonics, they will move onto a reading scheme. We hope that they move through this quickly as the main goal to to become free readers so children can discover books that they enjoy.

Please click on the links below for our recommended reads:

Or why not visit the Book Trust who provide monthly recommended updates?

Book Trust recommended Reads

Progression Map

Please click here to view our progression map for Phonics