FAGLEY PRIMARY SCHOOL AND CHILDREN CENTRE

PHONICS POLICY
What does Phonics look like at Fagley Primary School?

What do we use to inform our teaching?

The Letters and Sounds document is used throughout school to inform the progression
and teaching of the different phases.
What does Phonics look like across the school?
Nursery
In Nursery there is a great emphasis on developing speaking and listening skills
individually and in small or larger groups. Phase 1 phonic activities are included as part
of everyday teaching activities and then introduced more formally in small group
sessions. There is a strong focus on developing the childrens capacity to listen,
concentrate and discriminate between sounds and also to prepare children to enunciate
sounds correctly.
Reception
In Reception, Phases 2 and 3 are introduced and taught in discrete sessions. Though
initially taught as a whole class, children are then grouped according to attainment to
meet the needs of the children. The classroom environment reflects the age related
expectation. This way, children who need extra support still have exposure to the full
range of phonemes taught.
As well as discrete teaching, children are encouraged to apply their phonic knowledge
for a purpose in the daily provision. For younger children in particular, phonics teaching
is highly effective in enabling them to tackle unfamiliar words in a range of areas. This
might range from reading captions or environmental print to writing in the role play
area. Writing materials are widely available for the children to use and children can
access books at all times as well as take them home to read.
At the beginning of the school year, parents/carers are invited to a phonics session
where they can see how phonics is taught and the correct pronunciation of sounds is
modelled. Activities are provided to model how to blend and segment sounds to read

and spell words and to show how these can be easily done at home to support childrens
learning. Activities are also provided to show how this then progresses into reading
simple captions and sentences. Parents/carers are also made aware of the expected
phonic level for that year group.
All staff in Reception have received phonics training and have an understanding of how
phonics should be taught effectively.
Key Stage 1
Phonics is taught every day in a discrete 20 minute lesson. Children are grouped
according to their phonics attainment and are taught by the teacher and teaching
assistants. Planning is provided by the teacher. Both Year 1 and Year 2 teach the age
related phase. This level of phonics is the expectation and as a link to ensure
application, the particular phonemes taught are incorporated into teaching in other
areas of the curriculum so that children can use and apply what they have learnt in
phonics sessions within other subjects. Pupils therefore achieve highly in the Year 1
phonics screening check from their starting point.
In addition to learning particular phonemes for the week, there is also an expectation
that children will learn to read and spell the high frequency words. Word boxes have
been distributed to each year group and all children within Key Stage 1 have a word box
containing the first 100 high frequency words. These boxes are checked regularly by
both the teacher and teaching assistant to ensure children learn the words. Known
words are then placed into a word book and are revised as appropriate. Once the first
100 high frequency words can be read, children are then moved onto the next 200
common words. It is expected that children will learn these words at home and
progress through them at a good pace.
All members of staff within Key Stage 1 have received phonics training.
Key Stage 2
It is recognised that phonics teaching and learning does not finish at the end of Key
Stage 1. As children move into Key Stage 2, they continue to work through the
National Curriculum/School Spelling program. However, children identified on the
phonics tracker that are still working on the phases as outlined in the Letters and
Sounds document, are provided with a tailored catch up and revision program alongside
the age related expectation for the year group. Key word boxes are also provided and
checked regularly for these children.
How is phonics tracked in school?
All year groups from Reception to Year 6 use a tracking sheet that breaks down the
different skills required in each phase in the Letters and Sounds document. It is used
to track the recognition of different phonemes/graphemes and also the reading and
spelling of the tricky words from each phase. These detailed trackers are updated
regularly and are used to identify areas of development for children. The information

from these is then used to inform teaching and also provide catch up sessions tailored
to the needs of those children that are not making expected progress. It also allows
children to be moved quickly within groups as they progress through the different
phases. This information is also passed onto the next teacher at the end of the
academic year so that learning can continue at a fast pace. Phonics trackers will
continue through Key Stage 2 as appropriate to inform teaching alongside spelling work.
How do we assess phonics in school?
At Fagley Primary School there is a strong belief that spelling tests do not play a part
in the assessment of childrens abilities to spell. Therefore the way children
demonstrate their ability to apply phonic knowledge in their reading and writing is the
main source of the assessments made.
During the writing process, teachers model sound talking of words within their teaching
so that children will hopefully see the purpose of phonics sessions and apply that
knowledge in their writing across the curriculum. When writing is assessed using the
National Curriculum/School/Chris Quigley Assessment criteria for writing documents,
there are sections based around spelling which can be used to identify how children
have applied their phonic knowledge in their independent writing.
When planning guided reading, a decoding objective from the Bradford Reading Record
is incorporated alongside objectives from other reading strands. These objectives
clearly show what phonic skills children should be demonstrating in their reading. The
strategies and knowledge that children use can then be observed and recorded. In this
way teachers can obtain a rounded picture of childrens phonic attainment.

Drafted
September 2015

Head Teacher
On behalf of
Governing Body

Ratified by Governing Body

March 2016

Planned date of review

March 2019

Print name

Signature

Date

Chris Parfitt

C. Parfitt

March 2016

R Curtis

R Curtis

March 2016