Our Phonics
Intent
The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout EYFS and Key Stage One. At Bentley New Village Primary School, we value reading as a life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers.
We believe that RWInc Phonics provides the foundations of learning to make the development of fluent reading and writing easier.
We acknowledge that children need to be taught the key skills in segmenting and blending to be equipped with the knowledge to be able to complete the phonics check at the end of year one. We also value and encourage the pupils to read for enjoyment and recognise that this starts with the foundations of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending skills.
Implementation
Through the teaching of RWInc the children are taught the essential skills needed for reading.
RWInc Phonics is taught daily to all children in the Foundation Stage and Key Stage One. Extra support is provided to those in Year 2 who have not passed the phonics screening test in Year 1.
Phonics Interventions in Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 are planned for those children who need to further develop their word reading skills.
Teachers systematically teach the children the relationship between the sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. RWInc Phonics is taught in differentiated groups by RWInc trained teachers and teaching assistants. Teachers regularly assess pupil’s phonic knowledge using the RWInc assessments. Children are then moved groups to ensure the children are reading books that match to their current phonic knowledge.
All home reading books are decodable, linked with each stage of the children’s phonic knowledge.
Impact
Through the teaching of RWInc Phonics, we aim for for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school.
Attainment in phonics teaching is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of this statutory assessment.
