Banwell Primary School follows Extend Letters and Sounds – a complete curriculum for phonics, early reading and writing.
This is a validated systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme. Children begin this programme in EYFS and continue it into the first part of Year 2 where it is superseded by the Spelling Programme. The Phonics Programme is a 9 step approach to the systematic teaching of phonics. The central principles involve:
- Children having knowledge of the alphabetic code;
- Children having the skill to blend to read;
- Children having the skill to segment to spell;
- Children understanding these as a reversible process
The Phonics Programme links reading and writing to phonic knowledge and has been of great benefit for our children. The knowledge children acquire to support their development of early reading is equally as relevant for their development as a writer. It is important that children are given equal opportunities to practise and apply their phonics skills in writing and reading tasks so that they can understand the relationship between decoding skills for reading and encoding skills for spelling. These skills are underpinned by the modelling and teaching of good listening skills, combined with frequent opportunities to improve children’s visual and auditory memory and their ability to sequence. These skills are developed through the teaching of activities to promote phonological and phonemic awareness in young children before they embark on a systematic phonics program.
Alongside daily teaching of phonics, activities and opportunities are provided within the learning environment for children to apply and consolidate their learning.
When teaching reading, we use a systematic, synthetic phonics approach. To support this, we also teach and value strategies such as learning sight vocabulary and looking for context when reading unfamiliar vocabulary. It is vital that early reading is undertaken through the use of phonetically decodable texts and, therefore, we ensure that the first books the children receive to read are matched to the phonic step they have secured. Specific texts, selected from a a variety of reading schemes are used in school, including: Bug Club, Floppy's Phonics, Jelly and Bean, Collins Big Cat and Oxford Reading Tree. Phonetically decodable books are organised by phonetic step with a clear progression that is in line with our phonics programme. This allows us to ensure that each child is accessing books which are matched to their current level of need and complement their phonetic development. The correct level of text will both inspire and enthuse, whilst nurturing their reading ability. This ensures that children will progress rapidly with both their decoding and understanding of a text. Understanding is the key to enjoyment; text comprehension starts straight away in EYFS with class story time.
Our aim is to enable each child to gain a love for reading and writing which will last a life time.
