Phonics

Phonics at Scorton School

At Scorton Church of England Primary School we believe becoming fluent and comprehensive readers is the key to accessing learning across the whole curriculum.

We aim to create a love for Reading, Writing and Spelling through a consistent approach of Phonics teaching. Phonics is an important daily lesson in each class from nursery through to year 2 and in KS2 we differentiate according to children’s phonic awareness and development. Our school follows Red Rose Letters and Sounds, which develops the children’s ability to hear, discriminate, recognise and write the sounds. Teachers plan flexibly using the rigorous assessment and progression and deliver discrete daily sessions that are multisensory, fun, pacy and engaging. Opportunities to apply  knowledge of phonics is evident in all aspects of our curriculum. 

Our pupils will experience;

• A discrete daily phonics session
• Focused directed teaching involving oral and written practice of letters and sounds;
• A variety of teaching methods, including demonstration, modelling, games, singing and other practical activities.
• Repetition and teaching of ‘tricky’ words.

What does a phonics session look like in our school? 

Part 1: Revisit

Part 2: Teach

Part 3: Practise

Part 4: Apply ( This might take place in provision for EYFS or as an introduction to a phonics session for Year 1/2  due to our mixed age context.)  

We noticed that our children made superb progress in phonics when we added story, music and rhyme. As a school and with the children, we created pictures and rhymes to help us read. Sometimes we add pop music and disco lights too!

All of our nursery and pre-school take part in daily phonics sessions with Miss Dawson. These sessions help the children to prepare for reading and are super fun! They focus on listening to sounds, making sounds, rhyme, alliteration, oral segmenting and blending and much more! 

All of our Reception children complete a phonics session daily. We begin reading and writing graphemes at Phase 2 and work through Phase 3 and 4 by the end of Reception!  Click below to see when we learn sounds and tricky words throughout the year. 

All of our Year 1 children complete a phonics session daily! In Year 1 we consolidate Phase 3, 4 and progress to reading in Phase 5. Click below to see when we learn to read "special friends" or graphemes. 

In Year 2 we consolidate our reading of Phase 5 graphemes and build up our reading fluency/ stamina. As spellers, we learn to spell Phase 5 graphemes. See our Spelling Overview below.

Some children continue their phonics journey into KS2. Our staff have received up to date training to enable them to deliver effective phonics sessions. We use interventions such as " Bounce Back Phonics." Gaps in children's reading and spelling are identified and targetted in English lessons as part of their reading and spelling development.