Intent in Phonics

At Sawley Infant and Nursery School we intend to provide high-quality teaching and learning of Phonics by:

• Ensuring that children learn to make connections between the letters of written texts (graphemes, or letter symbols) and the sounds of spoken language.
• We ensure children are taught how to identify all the phonemes in a word and match them to a letter in order to be able to spell correctly.
• Ensuring children are taught how to break up words, or decode them, into individual sounds, and then blend all the way through the word.
• We shall ensure the children have opportunities to read high-frequency words that do not conform to regular phonic patterns through carefully planned lessons and by displays around the classroom.

We also intend to ensure progression in phonics to allow children to be able to confidently read age-appropriate texts.

Implementation in Phonics

Twinkl Phonics Scheme

At Sawley Infant and Nursery School, we follow Twinkl Phonics. The Twinkl Phonics programme covers all the statutory requirements for synthetic phonics-based reading and writing. Phonics sessions are structured in the same way each day, utilising a daily teaching PowerPoint presentation and a wide range of engaging activities, to build strong, consistent and familiar routines. In this way children are aware of expectations and are not distracted in their progress towards the learning objective.

What is Systematic Synthetic Phonics?

Synthetic phonics is a method of teaching where words are broken up into the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children learn to make connections between the letters of written texts (graphemes, or letter symbols) and the sounds of spoken language. Synthetic phonics also teaches children how to identify all the phonemes in a word and match them to a letter in order to be able to spell correctly. Children are taught how to break up words or decode them, into individual sounds, and then blend all the way through the word.