Phonics
At Alanbrooke Academy we are determined that every child learns to read and it is central to everything we do.
We use Essential Letters and Sounds as our SSP validated phonics programme as this fits with our philosophy of Keep Up not Catch Up with interventions in the moment. This ensures that no child gets left behind.
Please follow the link for more information about ESL here
Why Essential Letters & Sounds?
After much deliberation we have chosen ElS because it meets our high expectations for reading and phonics at Alanbrooke Academy.
- All children are ale to learn to read well quickly
- Teach reading in a way that reduces cognitive load and maximises on acquiring knowledge
- Promotes high quality first teaching in a consistent way throughout school
- combines continuous and reactive assessment
- provides robust intervention
- is rigorous and engaging
- Encourages more rich vocabulary
- Ensuring every child can be successful in every lesson through Keep up not catch up approaches
- Allow all children to achieve fluency and accuracy
At Alanbrooke we:
- Follow Essential Letters and Sounds which has a four part lesson structure and teaching sequence (review, teach, practise, apply) which promotes independence, resilience and success in all our learners.
- Teach children that phonics helps us to read and write.
- Whole class teaching allows all children to access Quality First Teaching, catch up sessions and interventions are also provided for those children who need more practice and support.
- Ensure that all phonics teaching is delivered with pace and passion.
- Use 100% decodable books in phonics lessons so that children can directly apply their new knowledge and phonic skills at an appropriate level. We use a range of decodable books which have been carefully organised to match the sounds your child is learning.
- Invite all parents to attend phonics and reading workshops to support their children with the development of their child’s phonics skills.
- Classrooms are well resourced with phonic working walls and resources which are readily available empowering children to independently make correct spelling choices.
Phonics and Reading Books
When the children are starting to learn the phonic code it is important that the books they read are closely matched to the letter sounds they are learning. The books should give the children confidence and help develop fluency, we want our children to feel confident and have a sense of achievement.
Children also have the opportunity to choose a quality picture/story book that they can share with an adult at home.
Assessment of Phonics
We track our children throughout each Phonic Phase to monitor both achievement and progress.
Our main emphasis on the assessment of phonics is on how effectively the children are able to apply their learning into reading and writing. This provides the evidence that the phonic learning is fully embedded.
If necessary, further support through targeted interventions is provided for children to enable them to keep up with the phonics programme.
Additional support for phonics is also put in place for those children in KS2 that still require support.
The lowest 20% of children are heard read at least once per week by a teacher or teaching assistant, in addition to the taught reading sessions.
Phonics Screening Check
Year One Children participate in the Statutory Phonic Screening Check in the Summer Term. To find out more about the Screening Check, please speak to Miss O'Keeffe.
Useful Phonics Links
To find out how to say the sounds correctly click the link below:
Parents presentation here
Our phonics lesson structure document can be read in full here
