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Phonics

Phonics Aims

At Steyning C of E Primary we are passionate about enabling all children to become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. We know that the systematic teaching of synthetic phonics provides the best foundation of learning to allow the children to develop into fluent readers and writers. Synthetic phonics is the teaching process that is used to build sound and word recognition and help children blend sounds into words. Children learn to blend sounds together to read words and to ‘break down’ or segment words into sounds to support and develop their writing ability.

Phonics at Steyning C of E Primary follows Ruth Miskin’s ‘Read Write Inc’ series. It allows children to learn to read accurately and fluently with good comprehension. Throughout the programme, children learn the English alphabetic code: the 150+ graphemes that represent 44 speech sounds. Effective teaching of this programme allows our children to rapidly learn sounds and the letter, or groups of letters that represent them. Our phonics teaching and learning is progressive from EYFS up to Year 2 and is taught systematically and daily. The children are assessed regularly and taught in small, differentiated groups using resources and books closely matched to their individual knowledge of phonics and whole words. This means that right from the beginning, they experience plenty of success and become increasingly fluent and accurate readers.

Phonics Values

LOVE – We love being successful in phonics as we understand that phonics provides the building blocks to make us fluent and confident readers and writers.

HAPPY – We show happiness by celebrating each other as readers and writers. We show plenty of success in phonics and are happy that we become confident and fluent readers and writers. We are happy when we see ourselves as readers.

RESPECT – We show that we are collaborative by praising others’ successes and supporting each other's difficulties. We love celebrating our growing phonic abilities together.

COLLABORATIVE – We show that we are collaborative by working together in our phonics lessons in our ‘Fred’ partners. We explore combinations of letters and sounds together and enjoy blending and segmenting words together. We support each other in our learning by celebrating each other’s achievements and giving each other praise and motivation. 

CURIOUS – We show our curiosity by asking about new letter sounds and how to blend them, and exploring new sounds and words together.

BRAVE – We show bravery by being perseverant and determined learners. We take pride wanting to learn new sounds and words and challenging ourselves to use them.

Click here to view whole school Vision & Values.