Phonics at Newbold and Tredington C of E School

The National Curriculum 2014 states that ‘high-quality phonic work’ should be taught systematically and discretely as the prime approach used in the teaching of early reading. At Newbold and Tredington C of E Primary School, we follow the Letters and Sounds programme. Phonics progression involves decoding, oral sounding, blending, grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC), blending to read for fluency. 

Using Letters and Sounds, discrete daily teaching of Phonics takes place daily in Reception and Key Stage 1. Beyond the discrete daily lesson, the children will have decodable reading books to take home that match the phonics taught. We now use Reading Stars books from Ransom Publishing as these books follow the Letters and Sounds scheme in order. Reception children take home pictures books to encourage reading from the start. The reading books sent home vary in length so please do not be discouraged if your child brings home a shorter or longer book than normal as the focus is choosing a book that best matches the phonics taught. Any children in KS2 who are still receiving additional support with phonics will also take home books from this scheme. In addition, we use Dandelion Readers books, Big Cat Readers and Oxford Reading Tree banded books to supplement the range of books on offer.

Reception children cover phases 1-4, Year 1 phases 4 and 5 and phase 6 will be taught in Year 2. Progress is tracked individually and regularly so that children can be offered addition support to keep up. In KS2, children who need extra support will continue with discrete phonics sessions. A copy of the tracking sheet can be found in our Phonics Policy document. Children in Year 2 onwards will be taught spelling rules as set out in the National Curriculum. Terminology linked to phonics, such as sound buttons, will continue to be used throughout the school for continuity. 

As a school, we wholeheartedly encourage reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator for success in life, more than family circumstances, educational background, or income (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development). Events such as World Book Day support this. We help individuals to choose suitable books that will hold their interest and widen the range of genres and authors on offer by regularly updating our library with books from new and award-winning authors. If you would like to donate a book to our library collection, please use this link to see our wish list (which is updated regularly): https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1Q49VI4BPCF4M/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist