Phonics
At Lane End Primary School we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. We teach reading through Lesley Clarke’s Letters and Sounds, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme, validated in March 2022. For more information on the SSP, please visit http://lesleyclarkesyntheticphonics.co.uk. We have a Phonics Leader, who drives the early reading programme in our school. The Phonics Leader monitors and supports our staff, so everyone teaches with fidelity to the Lesley Clarke Letters and Sounds SSP.
We start teaching phonics in Reception and follow the Lesley Clarke Letters and Sounds progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through EYFS and KS1.
As a result, our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. At Lane End Primary School, we also model the application of phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We have a strong focus on language development for our children because we know that speaking and listening are crucial skills for reading and writing in all subjects.
Foundations for phonics in Nursery:
We provide a balance of child-led and adult-led experiences for all children that meet the curriculum expectations for ‘Communication and language’ and ‘Literacy’. These include:
sharing high-quality stories and poems
learning a range of nursery rhymes and action rhymes
activities that develop focused listening and attention, including oral blending
attention to high-quality language.
We ensure our Nursery children are well prepared to begin learning grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending in Reception.
Daily phonics lessons in Reception and Year 1
We teach phonics for up to 30 minutes a day. In Reception, we build from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to the full-length lesson as quickly as possible. Children make a strong start in Reception: with phonics teaching beginning in Week 2 of the autumn term.
Children in Reception are taught to read and spell words using Phase 2 and 3 GPCs, and words with adjacent consonants (Phase 4) with fluency and accuracy.
Children in Year 1 review Phase 3 and 4 and are taught to read and spell words using Phase 5 GPCs with fluency and accuracy.
Children in Year 2 follow Phase 6 of Lesley Clarke’s Letters and Sounds.
We closely follow Lesley Clarke’s Letters and Sounds expectations of progress and a breakdown of taught content can be found in the attachments below.
Daily Keep-up lessons ensure every child learns to read
Any child who needs additional practice has daily support through our Phonics interventions: Phonics 10 and Phonics 1 to 1. These are taught by a fully trained adult. Phonics interventions match the structure of class teaching, and use the same procedures, resources and mantras, but in smaller steps with more repetition, so that every child secures their learning.
If any child in Year 3 to 6 has gaps in their phonic knowledge when reading or writing, we plan phonics interventions to address specific reading/writing gaps. These short, sharp lessons last 10 minutes and take place daily.
Parents
Click on this link https://www.lesleyclarkesyntheticphonics.co.uk/index.php/parents for more information about the Lesley Clarke Letters and Sounds SSP and how you can support your child at home.
