Intent

In line with the government statutory guidance on the teaching of phonics, Battle Primary Academy follow the Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics scheme, a government validated systematic synthetic phonics scheme. Following the scheme, in the teaching of phonics we intend:

• To ensure that all children at Battle Primary Academy are taught phonics through the systematic teaching of pure sounds, achieving age related expectation.

• For all children to be able to confidently apply their phonic knowledge to decode and segment words.

• To establish and maintain consistent teaching, modelling and progression throughout the teaching of phonics.

• To accurately differentiate teaching through the use of high quality assessment, to allow children to be taught in line with their current phonic progress, and allow for accelerated progress.

• To provide frequent access to high quality decodable texts, in line with the children’s current phonic progress.

• To, using assessment, promptly identify specific areas of need and close gaps in learning using individualised interventions.

• For children to be able to apply their phonic knowledge in spelling and independent writing.

Implementation

Our intentions in the teaching of phonics will be achieved through:

• The teaching of phonics daily across EYFS and KS1, and the teaching of phonics daily to children in KS2 identified as having gaps in their phonic knowledge.

• The systematic teaching of the 25 single letters sounds and 49 digraphs and trigraphs.

• High quality teaching of phonics, with frequent professional development opportunities for phonics teaching staff.

• The teaching of Fresh Start phonics to children requiring phonics tuition in Years 5 and 6.

• High quality teaching and modelling of pure sounds, and modelling of segmenting and decoding words using previously learnt phonic knowledge.

• Daily application of phonic knowledge in the writing of phonetically decodable words.

• The provision of high-quality texts at the current decoding level of all children, to allow for practise and phonic application.

• The provision of high quality texts at the current decoding level for children to take home.

• Frequent revisiting of sounds previously taught to support and maintain progress.

• Frequent assessment of the children’s progress and phonic retention, to identify gaps and allow the children to be taught in groups best aligned with their current phonic level.

• The teaching of non-phonetically decodable ‘red words’ in line with their phonic reading progress.

Impact

Impact of the teaching of phonics at Battle Primary Academy will be frequently monitored and assessed through:

• Read Write Inc. screening assessments carried out at least once per half term (every six weeks) with all children on the RWI scheme.

• Government statutory phonics screening checks will be carried out with all children in the summer term of Year 1. Children not achieving the pass mark will be supported with interventions to support them before a resit is taken in summer term of Year 2.

• Frequent coaching of phonics teaching staff will take place to support and develop the high-quality teaching of phonics at Battle Primary Academy.