Phonics

At Moor End we follow the Red Rose scheme of phonics devised by the advisory team at Lancashire. We are investing £5000 in a new Phonic scheme and home reading to ensure we continue to close the gap. Each child in Reception, Yr1 and Yr2 has a daily, minimum 20-minute phonics lesson, following the teaching sequence of revisit/ review – teach – practise – apply. In Yr2, children also access a balance of both phonic and spelling punctuation and grammar (SPAG) lessons based on their individual needs and attainment. Reception and KS1 children are either taught as a whole class or sometimes put into small groups, based on regular assessments so that children’s learning needs are accurately matched to the correct provision. Small phonic sessions or interventions are delivered by teaching assistants and overseen by the class teacher, to provide complimentary teaching.

Sessions are lively, fast-paced, and fun. In a session, children are taught either phonemes/ digraphs/ trigraphs, high frequency and/or tricky words and these are consolidated through reading and writing. There is an emphasis on paired work and lots of opportunities to speak and listen, as well as to read and write the sounds.

At the end of Year 1 children have to take the national Phonics Test which tests children’s phonic knowledge. Here, they are required to read real and non-sense words, applying the skills they have learnt. Ideally children will have completed and consolidated Phase 5 during Year 1 and Phase 6 during Year 2, so that they can focus more on higher-level comprehension using increasingly challenging texts. Any child that does not complete the phonics programme will continue learning phonics throughout Year 3/4 during interventions.

Please click on the link below to find out about the phonics scheme we follow