Phonics Statement of Intent: "To learn to read fluently, accurately and confidently. We know that reading is the key that unlocks the whole curriculum and enables them to access their learning. Therefore strong phonic knowledge and the ability to decode efficiently is essential to them becoming lifelong readers."
“The best primary schools in England teach virtually every child to read, regardless of the social and economic circumstances of their neighbourhoods, the ethnicity of their pupils, the language spoken at home and most special educational needs or disabilities. Their success is based on a determination that every child will learn to read, together with a very rigorous and sequential approach to developing speaking and listening and teaching reading, writing and spelling through systematic phonics. This approach is applied with a high degree of consistency and sustained.” (Ofsted: Reading by Six. 2012)
Our principal aim is to develop the children’s phonological awareness, ability to segment and blend words and read common exception words on sight- to become fluent readers! Our teaching at all levels includes:
We strive to ensure that all children leave our school reading and writing (including spelling) to the best of their ability. We aim that all children will have a good word recognition, language comprehension and they have a developed a lifelong love for reading.
Phonics is one of the many skills needed to become a reader and writer. We aim to give children the best possible start on their reading/writing journey by teaching them the essential phonological/phonemic skills and knowledge to decode and encode words independently from the outset. At the point of reading/writing, children will use phonics as their first strategy to read and spell unknown words until it is embedded and automatic for them. We recognise that the development of spoken language and the enjoyment and comprehension of quality literature go hand in hand to develop a lifelong love of reading and aim to nurture and develop these attributes alongside the phonics program.
In September 2025 we launched our new phonics programme: Read, Write Inc.
In Read Write Inc. Phonics lessons, children learn the English alphabetic code: the 150+ graphemes that represent 44 speech sounds. They rapidly learn sounds and the letter, or groups of letters, they need to represent them, in three sets of Speed Sounds Lessons. Simple and enjoyable mnemonics help all children to grasp the letter-sound correspondences quickly. Knowledge is taught and consolidated every day. High frequency words that are not phonically regular are taught as ‘tricky’ words and are practised frequently.
Lively phonics books are closely matched to the children’s increasing knowledge of phonics and ‘tricky’ words so that, early on, children experience plenty of success. Repeated readings of the texts support their increasingly fluent decoding.
Reading
Children read their story book three times. One the first read, children focus on accurate word reading; the second, on developing fluency; and the third, on comprehension.
Accuracy
Children learn to:
Fluency
Children learn to:
Comprehension
Children learn to:
Groupings and Assessments
Children are assessed and grouped according to their phonic knowledge. Each child reads books that match their phonic knowledge. Ongoing assessment means that groups are constantly adjusted to ensure the best progress for each child.
Children in Year 1 will complete the Phonic Screening Check during the summer term. We strive for all of our children to pass the Phonic Screening Check and additional support will be put in place for those children who require it. Children who do not achieve the pass mark in Year 1 will retake the test in the following academic year, when they are in Year 2.
Lift Lea Forest,
Hurstcroft Road,
Kitts Green, Birmingham
B33 9RD
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