Phonics Curriculum

Higher Bebington Junior School
Phonics Curriculum

Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write by developing their phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate different sounds used in the English language. Children learn the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them.

Many children enter Higher Bebington Junior School with secure phonic knowledge. However, some children need more time to become familiar with the 44 sounds and corresponding graphemes used in English. At Higher Bebington Junior School, we place a strong emphasis on teaching these children phonics using a cumulative, systematic, multisensory phonics programme to provide them with a solid foundation in reading and writing. Because not all words in the English language comply with the rules of phonics, we also teach so-called ‘sight words’ by repetition and retrieval. 

The Teaching of Phonics

Phonics lessons at Higher Bebington Junior School are taught in small intervention groups three times a week using the Read, Write Inc. scheme. The sessions are short, engaging, and memorable with an emphasis placed on revising previously learned letter-sound correspondences, learning a new one, practicing this, and applying this to single word, sentence, and text level reading. Children are assessed regularly to ensure they are in the correct group for their ability, and we choose home reading books carefully matched to their phonic level to guarantee reading success.

In years 5 and 6, we use a scheme called ‘Fresh Start Phonics’ from Read, Write Inc.. As in the lower years, children have 3 phonics sessions a week, but the books used in this phonics scheme are suited to an older audience and link to topics covered in upper KS2.

Throughout Higher Bebington Junior School, children who are making slower than expected progress in phonics interventions will receive regular revision sessions with a teacher or teaching assistant. These are 5 minute 1:1 interventions where children quickly revise the sounds they have been learning. The sessions are designed increase the speed at which children recognise and name graphemes. All children receiving RWI interventions will be supported daily with both recognising and recalling phonics sounds and reading fluency.

Practicing Phonics at Home

Children will bring home a home reading book which is matched to their phonic level. Research shows that reading the same book several times helps children to increase their reading fluency and word recognition, so we recommend your child rereads this book several times with an adult. Alongside the books your child brings home, seek out books that you and your child enjoy reading. Discuss words that present a challenge, breaking them down into their component sounds in order to read them if necessary. Make sure you set aside quiet time for reading and enjoying books together. 

In addition to books, your child will bring home packs of words that can be decoded using their phonics knowledge. Practice reading and spelling these words. Play fun games with them such as thinking of words that rhyme. They are a mixture of decodable words (words that can be sounded out) and sight words/exception words (words in which the English spelling code works in an unusual or uncommon way, which means the words have to be learned and recognised by sight).

Spelling

The RWI spelling programme is a structured programme designed for children in Y2 -6 and it meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. It is the natural progression from the RWI phonics that is being delivered from F2- Year 1 in Town Lane.

The programme follows a simple, repetitive structure that should be easy to follow. There are 12 units to complete in Year 3 and 4 and 14 in Years 5 and 6. In all year groups there are special focus units and practise tests to complete. In each unit there are 11 simple activities for the children to complete and they include opportunities to explore spelling patterns, complete dictionary and thesaurus challenges, complete dictation exercises and practise tests.

There will be 2 or 3 structured sessions a week as outlined below plus further consolidation practice of sounds and words identified by class teachers as needing further focus.