We use the DFE approved phonics scheme Supersonic Phonic Friends across Reception and Key Stage 1.  The scheme has engaging animal characters who teach the children the skills they need to read and to write.  Each animal has an action which the children will soon become familiar with.   We hope to achieve consistency across all year groups and with all adults supporting early reading.  Weekly newsletters will be sent home which will let you know what has been taught in class each week.  Children will have home learning books which will contain reading practise.  We invite parents in to see how we teach phonics in school in both EYFS and in Year 1.    

Intent 

At Rattlesden it is our intent that all children learn to read and write with accuracy, fluency and automaticity.  Daily lessons are fun, interactive and multi-sensory and follow a clearly defined, incremental sequence.  We believe that no child should be left behind so will provide effective and focused intervention.  We aim for all parents to have the knowledge and skills to support their children at home.

Implementation

At Rattlesden, phonics is taught using the Department for Education validated “Supersonic Phonics Friends” programme.  This is a fully systematic, synthetic approach ranging from the simple to the complex spellings of the alphabetic code. Supported by the Supersonic Phonic Friends, this approach helps our children to develop confidence and apply each skill to their own reading and writing, We have chosen this programme as it provides an engaging, fun and active approach to teaching, which matches our ethos in school.  A progression document provided by Supersonic Phonics demonstrates how it will be implemented across the different year groups and how skills are built on from school entry to the end of Year 2.  Please see the document shown below.
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Class teachers will monitor, assess and track children’s progress.  The lowest attaining 20% of children will receive additional support.  Parents are informed about their child’s progress and will receive newsletters so that they can support children at home.  Parents will be invited in for phonics workshops which explain exactly how phonics is taught at Rattlesden. Children have access to fully decodable reading material so that they can practise their skills.

Impact

Children will have a strong foundation in phonics and be able to recognise the 44 sounds (or phonemes) in the English language and know which letters (or graphemes) represent these. They will be able to correctly apply these into their reading and writing, working towards an independent way of working. This will enable the children to become fluent readers and confident writers, having all the foundation skills needed. 
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Meet our Phonic Friends  

Here are some more useful websites

www.phonicsplay.co.uk/   This website has some free games for children to play.
www.oxfordowl.co.uk/  This website is free and contains an e-library as well as a section for parents on phonics.

DFE The Reading Framework