Phonics & Early Reading Curriculum

Miss Newsham

Phonics Subject Leader

Why Do We Teach Phonics?

Teaching children to read is an essential part of their learning. Reading is a skill that helps to develop vocabulary and improve understanding of words. In synthetic phonics lessons, children learn the relationship between letters and sounds. Teaching them to recognise the sounds each letter makes and how to put them together, enables them to read. It also helps with spelling as they learn how to break up words into sounds, in order to spell them. The idea that surrounds synthetic phonics is that once they are comfortable with the letters and sounds that make up words, children should even be able to read ‘nonsense’ words that don’t actually exist in the English language.

Our Aims:

· To establish a cohesive whole-school approach with progression and continuity in the teaching and learning of phonics throughout the school with a focus on quality first teaching.

· To ensure that systematic synthetic phonics (following the Twinkl Phonics programme) is the first approach pupils use to help with their reading and spelling.

· To ensure children learn to read and write all 44 graphemes in the English language.

· To ensure children have specific strategies to identify and decode common exception words (tricky words).

· To have robust assessment procedures to check progress and identify pupils in need of intervention.

· For pupils to apply their phonic knowledge in their reading and writing across the whole curriculum.

· For pupils to develop a love of reading and enjoy reading for pleasure confidently across a range of genres.

Objectives:

· To provide consistent, high-quality phonics teaching that ensures all children have a strong foundation upon which to tackle the complex processes of reading and writing.

· To ensure that the teaching of synthetic phonics is systematic and progressive throughout the foundation stage, key stage one and key stage two for those children needing interventions to support phonetic knowledge and understanding.

· To ensure that children have strong phonetic knowledge, understanding and skills so that they can decode words confidently and engage with higher-order reading and writing skills.

What Is Phonics?

Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language. The Department of Education establishes the core criteria for effective systematic synthetic phonics teaching programmes. Using phonics programmes, children are taught to read and write using phonics, which is by directly linking phonemes (sounds in words) and graphemes (the symbols used to represent them).

In the UK, phonics for children is an important feature of the curriculum. Children learn phonics through a curriculum scheme such as Twinkl Phonics. Phonics is considered the best way to teach children to read.

How We Deliver Our Phonics Teaching

We use Twinkl Phonics as our systematic, synthetic phonics programme (SSP). It is high quality and robust in its purpose. With a clear, structured progression through the programme, it allows all of our pupils to meet or exceed the expected standard.

The Twinkl Phonics approach combines rigorous progression with engaging learning materials. We believe that children learn best when they are enjoying their learning and that this comes from a mix of bright, fun and engaging lesson resources within a clear and systematic approach that builds on children’s skills daily.

At Sudell Primary School, our phonics provision is firmly grounded in our position that phonics provides the foundation for early reading and writing and is essential in ensuring every child becomes a confident, fluent reader. A high-quality phonics education equips pupils with the tools to decode and understand text, allowing them to access the wider curriculum, develop independence and foster a lifelong love of reading.

Through our systematic approach to phonics, we aim to build self-confidence, resilience and literacy success for all pupils. This aligns directly with our mission to provide the Aldridge Advantage to all, including the hardest to reach. We are committed to closing gaps early, ensuring no child is left behind, and recognising that strong early literacy skills are essential in levelling the playing field for our children and community. As a result, our pupils become secure, motivated readers who can fully engage with learning across the curriculum.

Parents play a crucial role in supporting early reading, and we are committed to helping you feel confident with phonics at home. To support this, we provide parental phonics packs and clear guidance, outlining the sounds your child is learning, example activities, and how to model blending and segmenting.

Every child has also been given their own Twinkl Phonics login, allowing them to access a range of online phonics games, activities and decodable reading books that match the sounds they are learning in school.

Here are some simple, effective ways you can help at home:

Read little and often- short daily sessions work best.
Encourage your child to sound out and blend unfamiliar words.
Celebrate effort, progress and resilience.
Use your parental phonics pack to follow the current sounds, tricky words and suggested activities.
Use your child’s Twinkl Phonics login to play engaging phonics games and complete matched reading tasks.
Watch the Twinkl Phonics videos to support accurate sound pronunciation (enunciation). These are designed for parents and make modelling sounds much easier: https://www.youtube.com/@TwinklPhonics/playlists
Play phonics games such as spotting sounds around the house or reading “alien words.”
Ask your child to teach you a sound- this reinforces their confidence and understanding.
Speak to us if you notice your child struggling with a particular sound; early communication helps us tailor additional support.

We use the Twinkl Phonics scheme, a fully systematic and synthetic phonics programme designed to align with the national curriculum. Twinkl provides a clear progression of skills from early years through Key Stage 1, ensuring consistency in teaching and learning.

Children access high-quality resources, engaging decodable texts and matched activities that support sound recognition, blending, segmenting and fluency. Its structured approach also enables strong home-school partnership, supporting parents with clear guidance and accessible materials.

Twinkl Phonics is a scheme based on Letters and Sounds. The scheme is divided into six phases:

Phase 1: Beginning to recognise and differentiate sounds

Phase 2: Learning 19 letters of the alphabet, with one sound for each. Starting to blend and segment sounds

Phase 3: Learning the remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, with one sound for each.

Phase 4: Blending and segmenting words with adjacent consonants

Phase 5: Learning more graphemes and different pronunciations

Phase 6: Applying the phonics knowledge learned in phases 1 - 5 to develop greater fluency in reading, as well as improved accuracy in spelling.

In Year 1, all children complete the Phonics Screening Check in June.

This national assessment checks whether children can apply their phonics knowledge to read 40 real and pseudo (alien) words.

It takes around ten minutes per child.
Results help us identify any pupils needing further support.
Children who do not meet the expected standard receive additional teaching and retake the check in Year 2.

At our school, the screening check is not a test to be feared- it is a natural part of our phonics journey and simply another opportunity for your child to show the skills they have learned.

Home learning plays an important part in reinforcing the skills children learn in school. Each week, children receive phonics homework that matches the sounds they have been taught, including blending, segmenting, tricky words and short reading or writing tasks. This regular practice helps build confidence, fluency and automaticity.

Every child also has access to their Twinkl Phonics login, which provides a range of engaging online games, activities and decodable books tailored to their current phonics phase. These resources closely mirror the teaching in school and offer fun, interactive ways for children to revisit key skills.

To support home learning, we encourage:

Short, focused activities linked to weekly homework.
Practising blending (e.g., s–u–n → sun) and segmenting (e.g., ship → sh–i–p).
Reading decodable books together and discussing the sounds inside.
Using your child’s Twinkl login to complete matched games and reading tasks.
Quick word-spotting or sound games around the house.
Watching the Twinkl enunciation videos (linked in the parental section) if you want to check how a sound is pronounced.

Home learning is most effective when it is short, fun and consistent, and it plays a vital role in supporting early reading success.

A typical phonics lesson at our school includes:

Revisit & Review: rapid recall of previously learned sounds and words.
Teach: introduction of a new sound, tricky word or spelling pattern.
Practise: guided blending, segmenting or reading of new words.
Apply: reading decodable books, writing sentences or completing practical tasks using the new learning.
Intervention & Support: short, focused catch-up sessions for pupils who need extra reinforcement.