Phonics and Early Reading

 Home E Phonics and Early Reading

Phonics and Early reading Curriculum

Intent

Phonics is a fundamental part of the English curriculum at Benhurst Primary School, particularly in EYFS and Year 1. We teach phonics through the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) programme, beginning as soon as children join us in Reception and Year 1. The programme follows progressive phonic phases that build on the children’s developing knowledge of the alphabetic code, equipping them with the tools to master phonics and read fluently as they move through the school.

Our approach to phonics reflects our core values of Courageous Optimism, Boundless Creativity, and Heartfelt Compassion. With Courageous Optimism, we inspire our pupils to approach their learning with resilience and determination. Each phonics lesson encourages children to take on new challenges with confidence, believing in their ability to succeed.

In fostering Boundless Creativity, we nurture our children’s curiosity and love for language, helping them to explore and engage with words in innovative ways. Phonics becomes a tool for creative expression as pupils unlock the ability to read, speak, and write fluently, laying the foundation for a lifelong love of learning and literacy.

Through Heartfelt Compassion, we ensure that every child is supported on their individual journey. Our daily 35-minute phonics sessions are adapted to meet the needs of all learners, with additional 1:1 support for those who require it. This personalised approach ensures that every child receives the care and attention they need to succeed, regardless of their starting point. We model empathy and patience in helping children overcome challenges, ensuring that no child is left behind.

The introduction of Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCS) ensures that children are matched with reading books that are appropriate for their developing abilities, fostering a sense of accomplishment as they progress. By the end of Year 1, all children take the Phonics Screening Check, ensuring they have the necessary skills to become confident, independent readers as they continue their learning journey.

Implementation

Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) is our chosen Phonics programme. The aim of ELS is ‘Getting all children to read well, quickly’. It teaches children to read by identifying the phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and graphemes (the written version of the sound) within words and using these to read words.

Children begin learning Phonics during the first term of Reception and it is explicitly taught every day during a dedicated slot on the timetable. Children are given the knowledge and the skills to then apply this independently.

Throughout the day, children will use their growing Phonics knowledge to support them in other areas of the curriculum and will have many opportunities to practise their reading. This includes reading 1:1 with a member of staff, with a partner during shared reading and as a class. Children continue daily Phonics lessons in Year 1 and further through the school to ensure all children become confident, fluent readers.

We follow the ELS progression and sequence. This allows our children to practise their existing phonic knowledge whilst building their understanding of the ‘code’ of our language GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence). As a result, our children can tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover.

Children experience the joy of books and language whilst rapidly acquiring the skills they need to become fluent independent readers and writers. ELS teaches relevant, useful and ambitious vocabulary to support each child’s journey to becoming fluent and independent readers.

We begin by teaching the single letter sounds before moving to diagraphs ‘sh’ (two letters spelling one sound), trigraphs ‘igh’ (three letters spelling one sound) and quadgraphs ‘eigh’(four letters spelling one sound).

We teach children to:

Decode (read) by identifying each sound within a word and blending them together to read fluently
Encode (write) by segmenting each sound to write words accurately.

Impact

The structure of ELS lessons allows children to know what is coming next, what they need to do, and how to achieve success. This makes it easier for children to learn the GPCs we are teaching (the alphabetic code) and how to apply this when reading.

ELS is designed on the principle that children should ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’. Since interventions are delivered within the lesson by the teacher, any child who is struggling with the new knowledge can be immediately targeted with appropriate support. Where further support is required, 1:1 interventions are used where needed. These interventions are short, specific and effective.

In addition, in Year 2, the children follow the ELS Essential Spelling scheme which gives all children the knowledge to spell, confidently. ELS Essential Spelling for Year 2 uses code knowledge as its approach to spelling, and is a programme designed to teach spelling rules and spelling patterns. The three lessons each week allow children to build upon their understanding of the sounds they have previously been taught as part of their phonics programme and gives them the confidence to use this to support spelling.

Early Reading

In addition to phonics, during their time in EYFS and Year 1, our children are exposed to a wide range of picture books, rhymes and poetry. The children demonstrate their understanding through retelling stories, anticipating the key events, and using new vocabulary they have been introduced to. Teachers ensure our children can thrive by providing a language-rich environment where children can develop both their speaking and listening skills. During daily story times, teachers use VIPER style sentence stems to encourage discussions and progression in comprehension skills.

Supporting Reading at Home:

Children will read books that are entirely decodable, this means that they shouldbe able to read these books as they already know the code contained within the book.
We only use pure sounds when decoding words (no ‘uh’ after the sound)
We want children to practise reading their book 4 times across the week working on these skills:

Decode – sounding out and blending to read the word.

Fluency – reading words with less obvious decoding.

Expression – using intonation and expression to bring the text to life!

We must use pure sounds when we are pronouncing the sounds and supporting children in reading words. If we mispronounce these sounds, we will make reading harder for our children. Please watch the videos below for how to accurately pronounce these sounds.

At the beginning of each academic year, we will hold an information session for parents and carers to find out more about what we do for Phonics at our schools. Please do join us.

More support for parents and carers can be found here: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/essential-letters-and-sounds/