Phonics

Reading consists of two interlinked dimensions, word reading and comprehension. Throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage One, skilled word reading is developed through the working out of unfamiliar words and the recognition of familiar printed words. Underpinning both is the understanding that letters represent sounds and this why phonics is taught throughout the school, depending upon the needs of the children. At Kingston Park we use a high quality systematic synthetic phonics approach. Throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage One discreet phonics sessions are planned for and taught every day following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics scheme. These sessions enable the children to learn specific sounds through systematic teaching.

All children at Kingston Park begin their phonics journey in nursery using the Foundations for phonics programme which is part of Little Wandle.  Our nursery children begin to listen and discriminate environmental and body sounds. They begin to play with sounds and words using rhyme and rhythm, alliteration, voice sounds and oral blending and segmenting.  There is a big focus on learning and remembering nursery rhymes too, 20 in total!

As the children progress through reception and Years One and Two all children have daily phonics session following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme. Each phonics session follows the same structure and resources to ensure consistency across school and reduce cognitive overload for the chidlren.

The children are taught to blend and segment with letters and apply their knowledge to reading and spelling words, captions, sentences and eventually texts. As they progress through the Little Wandle programme, they are constantly learning new graphemes and phonemes for use in their reading and spelling, as well as learning alternative pronunciations. Children will gradually become quicker at recognising graphemes of more than one letter in words and blending the phonemes represented.

Phonics Screen

All children in Year One work towards completing the phonics screen check during the summer term. Our highly experienced staff ensure all children make good progress towards passing the check and additional support is out in place for those children who need it. As parents you are constantly kept up to date about your child’s progress in phonics and our staff are always on hand to answer any queries and questions you may have. Any children who do not pass in Year One will retake the test the following year in Year Two. Additional support is put in place to support these children.

The selection of reading books your child brings home will support and develop their phonic ability.  The books are matched to your child's current phonic knowledge and are reviewed every 5 weeks.   Children also have access to high quality sharing books, so they can explore the love of reading at home.

Useful Websites: 

Throughout the year we hold several parent meetings to discuss the delivery of phonics. 

Copies of the presentations can be found below.