Phonics 

3 I's Statements

Our School Definition for phonics is: 

Phonics - when we blend and segment sounds to read and write words

Intent Statement - Phonics  

At St Joseph’s School, we are Readers! We want our children to love reading and books! They will have no limits to their ambitions and have opportunities to grow up to be librarians, authors, screen writers, editors and teachers. Through our teaching of Phonics, we provide purposeful learning to explore, appreciate and understand the creative world of books, and how reading can help to develop skills across all areas of the curriculum. Pupils at St Joseph’s are able to explore the relationship between sounds, words and sentences to develop a secure knowledge of reading.  

At St Joseph’s we use the Read, Write Inc programme to build understanding of phonics sounds, and to develop early reading skills. Children from nursery have access to phonics teaching in class and have the opportunity to practise these skills in provision across the Early Years. We intend for the Read, Write Inc programme to be accessible and successful for every reader in our school whilst keeping fidelity to the scheme as a whole. 

Every child is supported to achieve one step progress in the progression of stages on the Read, Write Inc programme so that they will have completed the programme during Year 2.   

Implementation Statement - Phonics  

At St Joseph’s, Phonics is taught from Nursery to Year 2, with additional support for any children who are in need of Phonics provision in Key Stage Two.  

• We maintain fidelity to the Read, Write Inc scheme to ensure consistency across the groups and classes 
• Read, Write Inc lessons take place for 10-15 minutes daily for N2 children from the spring term. The children are taught in 2 separate groups based on their phonic knowledge.  
• Read, Write Inc lessons take place daily for 35 minutes, 5 times a week for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children. 

• Every six weeks the children who are accessing the Read, Write Inc programme are assessed using the Read, Write Inc assessments. From this, the Reading leader will determine whether a child has moved into the next group or not. 
• The progression of the children is tracked on an excel tracking system which shows the progress of each child through the programme. 
• Reception class children are taught as a class for the first half term following the ‘Making a Strong Start’ programme with differentiated tasks to challenge and support the pupils, based on an initial baseline assessment. After this first half term, children who are becoming more secure in reading CVC words then join the Y1 and Y2 children in the 35 minute phonics sessions. Any children who are not yet at this level continue to receive their phonics teaching in class with the Reception class teacher. 
• Year 1 children work through the programme, and have access to additional phonics support through in-class interventions and Fast Track Tutoring (FTT), which is identified by the class teacher and the reading leader.  
• Y2 children continue to work on the Read, Write Inc programme throughout until they have completed the programme. From the start of Year 2, the class teacher and the reading leader identify children who have a secure phonic knowledge, and have passed the phonics screening check, to come off the Read, Write Inc programme and begin Reciprocal Reading in class.  

• Year 3 children who are still in need of support with their phonic knowledge, or who have not passed the phonics screening check will continue to have access to Read, Write Inc lessons. Additional in-class interventions will be in place for any phonics support they will continue to need to finish the programme.  
• Children in Year 4-6 will have interventions, and support with the lexia reading programme to support their phonics and reading skills to ensure they are able to access their class reading sessions.  
• During the Read, Write Inc lessons the children will work in partners to help them to build skills and support others with their reading. 
• We follow the 3 P’s for our Phonics lessons – Pace, Praise and Participation – ensuring that we help to build the confidence of all of our readers with pacey lessons that ensure the children are participating throughout. 
• Children will be taught new sounds based on their most recent assessment and will move through the set 1, 2 and 3 sounds in line with the programme to ensure that their phonic knowledge matches their reading level. 

• Children will have the opportunity to read in every Read, Write Inc lesson – this could be speed sounds, green words, red words or their Read, Write Inc book.  
• Comprehension is built into the lessons to ensure that we are supporting our children to become holistic readers, building an understanding of sentence structure, grammar skills, story language, settings, characters, plot and more.  
• The Reading leader will identify children after each assessment for further intervention and support (FTT) in phonics and reading. This will take place at least 2x weekly on a 1:1 basis, for 10 minutes per child. Additional support will be given to these children on the RWI Portal during their FTT time.  
• The Teachers and TAs who deliver the Read, Write Inc programme have access to high quality resources, materials and support to ensure that they are confident and secure in delivering high quality phonics lessons to the children at St Joseph’s through the use of the RWI Portal. 
• The Reading leader observes the different groups at least once per term to support and guide the phonics teachers and ensure high quality phonics lessons. The phonics teachers are given feedback from these observations and any further coaching is offered quickly.  

• Written work from Phonics lessons will be evidenced in Read, Write Inc books. The written elements in Read, Write Inc lessons include ‘hold a sentence’, and ‘edit a sentence’.  

Impact Statement – Phonics  

The impact of our phonics teaching will ensure the children of St Joseph’s to make progress from learning sounds and blending orally in nursery, to beginning to read words and sentences in Reception, to passing the Phonics Screening check in Year 1, and finally to completing the Read, Write Inc programme and becoming competent and confident readers in Year 2. Our Phonics programme will lead the pupils of St Joseph’s to be enthusiastic readers and to want to read and access books independently, and to develop a love of reading that will last throughout their lifetime.   

Scheme of Work and Progression Documents

The document below shows an outline of the Read, Write Inc Scheme. Class teachers use this document as a guide, but often, sounds are introduced earlier than the child's book colour to aid preparation for the phonics screening test.