Nanstallon Primary School
Phonics Policy
Nanstallon C.P. School Aims
At Nanstallon School we:
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Aspire to excellence in everything that we do
Have a curriculum which encompasses our local culture and
the wider world
Have a curriculum that equips children with basic skills whilst
developing creativity and curiosity
Embrace all opportunities to explore new ideas and avenues
of learning
Provide an environment where children feel confident and
have high self esteem
Maintain systems to ensure that children feel safe and secure
Foster an inclusive environment which encourages everyone
to value each other’s uniqueness and individuality
Recognise and celebrate successes and achievements
Value both cooperation and competition
Maintain a clear system of rules and strategies that are
consistent throughout the school
Promote a healthy and active lifestyle
Work in an atmosphere of mutual respect for all
Care for our environment
Promote and maintain good working partnerships in school,
with parents, with other professionals and the wider
community
Make learning fun
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Aims:
At Nanstallon C.P. School we strive to ensure all children become
fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One.
High quality phonic teaching secures the crucial skill of word
recognition that, once mastered, enables children to read fluently and
automatically. Once children are fluent readers they are able to
concentrate on the meaning of the text.
The ‘simple view of reading’ shows that both dimensions are
necessary to achieve fluent reading. However, the balance between
word recognition and language comprehension shifts as children
acquire secure and automatic decoding skills and progress from
‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ for purpose and pleasure. The
ultimate goal of learning to read is comprehension.
Our Phonics Planning:
Daily lessons are approximately 20 minutes long.
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It is time-limited, so that the vast majority of children should
be confident readers by the end of Key Stage 1. Most children
learn phonic skills best in the first few years of school and we
use ‘Jolly Phonics’ actions, sounds and pictures to help them.
It follows a planned programme (Letters and Sounds),
building on previous learning to secure progress.
It is taught daily in the morning when children are fresh.
It reinforces and applies acquired phonic knowledge and skills
as they progress through their phonics.
It ensures children progress in developing and applying their
phonics knowledge by assessing this.
It is differentiated to provide for the needs of all children.
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Age Related Expectations Within Nanstallon C.P. School
At Nanstallon School, high quality phonics sessions follow the
principles of the phonics resource ‘Letters and Sounds’ published by
the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. It sets out a
detailed and systematic program for teaching phonic skills for
children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming
fluent readers by age seven. ‘Letters and Sounds’ provides a sixphase structure which can be a useful map from which to plan
children’s progress, however the boundaries between the phases
should not be regarded as fixed. Guided by reliable assessments of
children’s developing knowledge and skills, teachers will need to
judge the rate at which their children are able to progress through
the phases and adapt the pace accordingly. As with much else in
the early years, some children will be capable of, and benefit from,
learning at a faster pace than their peers whereas others may need
more time and support to secure their learning.
At the start of the reception year at Nanstallon C.P. School, phonics
lessons begin; time is spent consolidating prior knowledge through
Phase One activities and developing an understanding of current
attainment.
Phase One activities are arranged under the following seven
aspects.
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Aspect 1:
sounds
Aspect 2:
Aspect 3:
Aspect 4:
Aspect 5:
Aspect 6:
Aspect 7:
General sound discrimination – environmental
General sound discrimination – instrumental sounds
General sound discrimination – body percussion
Rhythm and rhyme
Alliteration
Voice sounds
Oral blending and segmenting
Each aspect is divided into three strands.
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Tuning into sounds (auditory discrimination)
Listening and remembering sounds (auditory memory and
sequencing)
Talking about sounds (developing vocabulary and language
comprehension).
In addition to Letters and Sounds, we follow the ‘Jolly Phonics’
scheme. Letter sounds are taught in a specific order (not
alphabetically) through the use of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
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learning. If children are ready, they will move on to Phase Two of
Letters and Sounds.
Reception
Children continue to use the ‘Jolly Phonics’ sounds and actions
during their reception year, which are closely linked and planned
alongside the Letters and Sounds programme. The actions are used
to increase the children’s confidence and prompt them whilst
writing. Children begin to use interactive ICT resources to practice
phonics skills (e.g. Giant Phonics, Phonics websites).
Term 1 & 2 - Letters and Sounds Phase 2 (5 weeks + 1 week
recap)
By Christmas most children will be secure in these sounds and be
having a good go at blending (synthesising) simple CVC words. A
vast amount of blending will take place using the sounds correctly,
segmenting orally and in spelling VC and CVC words.
Terms 3 & 4 - Letters and Sounds Phase 3 (10 weeks + 2
weeks recap)
By Easter, most children are secure to the end of Phase 3, knowing
the basic digraphs and long vowel sounds. They are reading the
majority of the Phase 2 and Phase 3 High Frequency words (of
which there are 45) and are able to read and write simple
sentences.
Terms 5 & 6 - Letters and Sounds Phase 4 (10 weeks + 2
weeks recap)
Period of consolidation of the 42 graphemes through blending and
segmenting CCVC and CVCC words with consonant clusters.
By the end of Reception most children are secure in Phase 4.
As children develop knowledge of graphemes and their
corresponding phonemes, they are able to segment words and
apply their phonological knowledge to spell with increasing
confidence and accuracy.
Year 1
In Year 1, children will continue to use the ‘Jolly Phonics’ actions
when needed. The Letters and Sounds programme is used and
children also have the opportunity to play various phonics games
and reinforce their skills using interactive ICT resources. ‘Jungle
Club’ is an Early Literacy Intervention that is used to boost
confidence of children in Year 1 that require some consolidation of
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their phonic knowledge.
In June children in Year 1 will undertake the National Phonics
Screening Check.
Term 1 - Letters and Sounds Phase 4
Review of Phase 3 graphemes and consolidation of the 42
graphemes through blending and segmenting CCVC and CVCC
words with consonant clusters as Phase 4 of L&S.
N.B. Children who are not working at Phase 4 in Term 1 will be
identified and provision plans developed to better meet their needs
in Term 2.
Term 2 onwards - Phase 5 (30 weeks)
The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge
of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling. They
will learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these
and graphemes they already know, where relevant. Some of the
alternatives will already have been encountered in the highfrequency words that have been taught. Children become quicker at
recognising graphemes of more than one letter in words and at
blending the phonemes they represent. When spelling words they
will learn to choose the appropriate graphemes to represent
phonemes and begin to build word-specific knowledge of the
spellings of words.
N.B. At the end of each term, assessments are made and children
that are not working at the expected level begin Early Literacy
intervention program (Jungle Club) at the beginning of the next
term.
Term 6
The school sets targets each year for teachers to exceed the
national average pass rate for children taking the Screening Check.
YEAR 2
Most children will begin Year 2 secure in Phase 5 of Letters and
Sounds. By the beginning of Phase Six, children should know most
of the common grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They
should be able to read hundreds of words, doing this in three ways:
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reading the words automatically if they are very familiar;
decoding them quickly and silently because their sounding
and blending routine is now well established;
decoding them aloud.
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Children’s spelling should be phonetically accurate, although it may
still be a little unconventional at times. During this phase, children
become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers.
In Year 2 children will look spelling patterns for the past tense,
investigating and learning how to add suffixes, develop strategies
for spelling long words and find and learn to tackle the difficult bits
in words.
Re-screening of the Year 1 phonics test will take place in June and
all Non-SEND children are expected to pass the check at the second
attempt.
Assessment
Regular assessments will help to determine the appropriate phase
of phonics teaching for the next term and any additional
intervention required.
Children will be assessed using:
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Letters and Sounds assessments
Phase reading and spelling checks
Phase sentence/phrase dictation activities.
Reading of non-words and tricky words.
Slow Progress
Many children successfully follow the detailed and systematic
approach, becoming fluent readers by the age of 7; however, at
times, further support is needed. Initially phonics planning can be
altered by providing more appropriate, differentiated support and
through varying the resources being used. If age related
expectations are not being met beyond Year 2 then other means of
support need to be considered. For example:
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Through the use of Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
Investigating auditory problems
Additional support from the Speech and Language Therapist
Intervention groups (Early Literacy Support etc)
Role of Teachers
All teachers should ensure that they are aware of individual
children’s needs through both teacher judgment and formative
assessment. Teachers will use interactive resources and plan
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accordingly. Teacher’s assessment of individual children will inform
the rate at which their children are able to progress through the
phases. The groups the children are taught in are flexible and allow
for movement.
Monitoring and Review
The monitoring of this policy will be the responsibility of the Literacy
Coordinator in conjunction with the Head teacher.
This policy will be subject to a formal review every three years or
sooner if significant changes occur.
Policy adopted by staff:
September 2015
Policy adopted by governors: October 2015
Date for review: Spring 2018
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Appendices:
Phonics definitions
blend — to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word,
e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap
cluster — two (or three) letters making two (or three) sounds, e.g.
the first three letters of 'straight' are a consonant cluster
digraph — two letters making one sound, e.g. sh, ch, th, ph.
vowel digraphs – digraphs comprised of two vowels which,
together, make one sound, e.g. ai, oo, ow
split digraph — two letters, split, making one sound, e.g. a-e as in
make or i-e in site
grapheme — a letter or a group of letters representing one sound,
e.g. sh, ch, igh, ough (as in 'though')
grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) — the relationship
between sounds and the letters which represent those sounds; also
known as 'letter-sound correspondences'
morphemes — units within a word, including prefixes, suffixes, and
base words (Example: “unhappy” has two morphemes, un & happy,
and each contributes to the word’s meaning)
mnemonic — a device for memorising and recalling something,
such as a snake shaped like the letter 'S'
phoneme — the smallest single identifiable sound, e.g. the letters
'sh' represent just one sound, but 'sp' represents two (/s/ and /p/)
prefix — an affix placed before a word, base, or another prefix to
modify a term's meaning, as by making the term negative, as un- in
unkind, by signalling repetition, as re- in reinvent, or by indicating
support, as pro- in proabolition. Compatible prefixes can work
together, as "un-"and re- in unrefundable.
segment — to split up a word into its individual phonemes in order
to spell it, e.g. the word 'cat' has three phonemes: /c/, /a/, /t/
suffix — a morpheme added at the end of a word to form a
derivative (e.g. -ation, -fy, -ing, -itis ).
VC, CVC, CCVC — the abbreviations for vowel-consonant,
consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowelconsonant, which are used to describe the order of letters in words,
e.g. am, ham, slam.
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Nanstallon CP Phonics Scheme
Phonic Phase
2
s, a, t, p
i, n, m, d
g, o, c, k
ck, e, u, r,
h, b,f f, ff, l, ll, ss,
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j, v, w, x
y, z, zz, qu
ch, sh, th, ng
ai, ee, igh, oa, oo (long), oo (short)
ar, or, ur, ow, oi,
ear, air, ure, er
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adjacent consonants (CVCC, CCVC, CCCVC,
CCCVC)
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zh, wh, ph
long a: ay, a_e eigh, ey, y
long e: ea, e_e ie, ey, y
long i : ie, i_e, y, i
long o: ow, o_e, o, oe
long u: ew, ue, u_e
short oo: u, oul
aw, au
ir, er, ear
ou, oy
ere/eer ae/ear
c, k, ck, ch
ce/ci/cy, sc/stl, se
ge/gi/gy, dge
le, mb, kn/gn, wr
tch, sh,ea, (w)a, o
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suffix morphemes ing, ed
plural morphemes s, es
prefix morphemes re, un
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High Frequency Words
First 100, in order of the most common:
Phase 2
a
is
dad
him
but
into
an
it
had
his
the
as
of
back
not
to
at
off
and
got
I
if
on
get
up
no
in
can
big
mum
go
that
for
she
they
this
now
we
all
then
down
me
are
them
look
be
my
with
too
was
her
It’s
have
were
what
from
like
there
children
so
little
just
do
one
help
some
when
old
your
saw
Mr
I’m
day
very
Mrs
by
made
put
looked
time
came
oh
called
house
make
their
asked
Phase 3
will
see
he
you
Phase 4
went
said
come
out
Phase 5
don’t
about
here
people
could
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Next 200 common words, in order:
Water
how
would
home
bear
things
everyone
play
find
magic
fox
must
these
next
that’s
something
live
small
king
garden
let’s
great
last
before
fun
window
each
let
any
trees
away
did
or
who
can’t
new
our
take
more
shouted
through
red
began
first
baby
bed
say
car
town
fast
much
why
jumped
gran
place
sleep
book
girl
under
bad
good
man
took
didn’t
again
after
two
thought
I’ll
us
way
door
boy
work
fish
may
soon
couldn’t
I’ve
only
suddenly
cried
because
clothes
mother
feet
its
which
hat
tea
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want
going
school
ran
cat
wanted
has
dog
round
other
been
right
animals
lots
gave
still
night
three
around
many
told
keep
even
tell
sat
morning
green
inside
snow
top
over
where
think
know
long
eat
yes
well
tree
food
stop
sea
never
need
mouse
found
narrator
head
every
laughed
another
room
am
key
boat
queen
different
run
air
eyes