Phonics Teaching
Teaching:
At New Road we teach phonics using Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) a step by step systematic synthetic phonics programme. The aim of ELS is 'getting all children to read well and quickly.'
We are committed to every child learning to read as quickly as possible so the programme is followed with rigor and fidelity by all teachers and teaching assistants.
Discrete whole-class phonics lessons are taught every day to all children in Reception and Year 1, and also for the first term in Year 2. To ensure that learning is embedded, flashcards and reading opportunities continue throughout the day and additional phonics teaching is given to identified children.
Phonics remains the main strategy that we use to approach/decode unfamiliar words and spellings across the school.
Assessment and Intervention:
Continuous formative assessment is carried out during our phonics lessons and this is used to inform any same day intervention and the use of flashcards inside and outside of the phonics lessons. Our phonics scheme includes half termly assessments that our teachers can use to support pupils in moving forwards.
Children who have been identified as requiring further support receive targeted intervention based on the gaps in their phonic knowledge. The use of regular assessment means that we can try to close gaps quickly as part of the ELS ‘keep up not catch up’ ethos. We use the ELS intervention programme to ensure continuity. These interventions are short, specific and effective.
Please click on the link below to read our school Early Reading and Phonics Policy:
Early Reading and Phonics Policy
Visit the Oxford Owl website to find further information about ELS and how you can support your child with phonics -
https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/how-can-i-support-my-child-with-phonics/
Supporting your child at home:
To best support us in teaching your child how to read, we ask that you read the decodable text provided by the school 3 times across the week. Spending 10 minutes a day reading with your child will hugely support them in their journey to becoming an independent reader.
The texts sent home are carefully matched to each child’s phonic ability. We will only ask children to read books independently when they can decode these by themselves.
The children in Year 1 and Year 2 are also able to choose a reading for pleasure book from the library once a week. As these books are not fully decodable for the children, they will be a sharing book. These books are there for you to read with your child, helping us to instil a love of reading from the very beginning of their reading journey. These could be read together with your child reading the words they are able to decode or could be read by yourselves to your child.
Useful resources:
You can view the order of the sounds (graphemes) taught in ELS by clicking on the links below. You can also see the pictures and rhymes used to support the teaching of each grapheme.
During our phonics lesson we also teach the harder to read and spell words (HRS words) that children will come across in their reading books.
Please click on the link for a glossary of phonics terms to help you- Glossary of Phonics terms
Phonics videos:
The videos below will help you support your child at home and help you with the correct pronunciation on the sounds they are learning-
Phase 2 Pronunciation: https://vimeo.com/753929025/5eaa45c0aa
Phase 3 Pronunciation: https://vimeo.com/753931102/b9a2f8194f
Phase 5 Pronunciation: https://vimeo.com/753933192/43104a30e0
Please read our Reading and Phonics Meeting Presentations ( Reception and Year 1& Year 2) below to help you support your child at home-