Phonics

We begin teaching phonics in the first few weeks of term 1 in Reception so that children quickly learn the main sounds heard in the English language and how they can be represented.  Using the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ programme, children are first taught individual letters and their corresponding sounds before learning how two or three letters together can make one sound. They then use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences, and begin learning about ‘Common Exception Words’ which do not follow standard phonetic spelling rules. The children make rapid progress in their reading journey so that they can merge the individual sounds of more complex words – as taught in Phase 4 of the programme – by the time they leave Reception.

In Year 1, children continue with Phase 5, where they learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for letters and letter groups, along with additional Common Exception Words. By the end of Year 1, children will be skilled at blending sounds when reading and segmenting words into their individual sounds when spelling. In Year 1, all children are screened using the national Phonics Screening Check.

In Year 2, phonics continues to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code, and any child who does not meet age-related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps. The document at the end of this page gives full details of how a child should progress through the different phases of the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ programme.

To ensure no-one is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to through bespoke one-to-one interventions. These include GPC recognition, where a child’s ability to know the matching sound for each letter or group of letters is checked, and blending and segmenting interventions. In each class, the fifth of pupils who have found it hardest to progress with the others are closely monitored to ensure these interventions are effective.

Phonics Reading Scheme

At Horfield CE Primary School we promote a 'phonics first' approach and in both our guided reading sessions at school and in the books children take home, texts are closely matched to a child's current phonics knowledge so that everyone can experience real success in their reading. In these crucial early stages, we primarily use books from Ransom Reading Stars Phonics so that our reading materials match the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ progression step by step.  

Once children progress beyond decodable texts, they move onto our book scheme so that they can continue to polish their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills and become avid, expert readers.

unlocking letters and sounds progression 275838763.pdf