Phonics

At Bracken Leas, we strive for our children to become fluent and accurate readers from an early age. We value reading as a key life skill and one that lays the foundations for lifelong learning. We intend for all of our children to learn to read as quickly as possible and then to keep on reading. We aim for every child to learn to decode quickly and accurately so that reading becomes effortless and automatic, and effectively prepares them to develop their comprehension. We foster a love of reading by helping children to succeed and progress by stage, not age. We understand that the English language is complex and is most effectively taught through a systematic, synthetic approach. As a Trust, we use Read Write Inc. Phonics to teach early reading and we continue to use the programme to support children to ‘keep up, not catch up’.

Children at Bracken Leas follow the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme through Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2. The programme continues for those children who require additional support in Key Stage 2.

Teaching and learning focuses on what children already know and what they need to learn next in order to make the best possible progress. We begin teaching the sounds first, in a specific order, followed by how to blend those sounds together to read words. As they become more confident, children read storybooks which are carefully matched to the sounds they can already read, with the intention of supporting them to feel successful. Children access these books through daily guided reads in school which gives them the confidence to bring those same books home to read independently. Alongside this, the children are given additional, unfamiliar books which match the stage of those read at school.

We assess children every half term to identify their “Goldilocks spot” (not too easy, not too hard) and place them into appropriate phonics groups with other children at a similar challenge level. The children are grouped by stage, not age – we mix children across EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 to ensure every child is challenged appropriately.

Our school and the Read Write Inc. programme is committed to ensuring every pupil learns to read. The rigorous assessment process also helps to identify children who would benefit from daily one-to-one tuition on top of their daily phonics group session, to help them to ‘keep up, not catch up’.