Phonics

Our Christian Values and Distinctiveness, alongside our School Mission Statement of ‘Learning, Growing and Inspiring through God’s Love and Grace’, are at the heart of our curriculum and all that we do at Samlesbury.

The systematic teaching of phonics has a very high priority throughout the Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and beyond. At Samlesbury, we value reading and writing as key life skills, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers and writers. We acknowledge that children need to be taught the key skills in segmenting and blending to be equipped with the knowledge to be able to complete the phonics check at the end of year 1. We also value and encourage the pupils to read and write for enjoyment and recognise that this starts with the foundations of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending skills.

Through the teaching of the Floppy's Phonics programme, children are taught the essential skills needed for reading and writing. Phonics is taught daily to all children in Foundation Stage, and KS1. Extra support is provided to those in year 2 who have not passed phonics screening in year 1 and interventions are planned for those children who are working below expected levels.

Staff systematically teach learners the relationship between sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them. Phonics is delivered to differentiated groups of learners.  Each child is issued with a phonics reading book that matches their Phonics level.

Teachers regularly assess the pupil’s phonics knowledge using phonics assessments and the Early Learning Goals (in EYFS). These regular assessments inform planning and allow teachers to identify any gaps in learning.

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage One. This way, children can focus on developing their fluency and comprehension as they move through the school. Attainment in reading is measured using statutory assessments at the end of Key Stage One and Two. These results are measured against the reading attainment of children nationally. Attainment in phonics is measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of year 1. However, we firmly believe that reading is the key to all learning and so the impact of our reading curriculum goes beyond the results of the statutory assessments.