Phonics

At All Saints C of E Primary School we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers.  It is our intention to give our pupils the best possible foundations to enable them to succeed in this journey.  The bedrock which underpins this is high quality phonics teaching.   We teach phonics through the Bug Club Phonics Programme which is a comprehensive, phonics teaching approach centred around accessible, inclusive and interactive teaching.   Using this approach ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through the school.

As a result,  our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read. We model the application of the alphabetic code through phonics in shared reading and writing, both inside and outside of the phonics lesson and across the curriculum. We value reading and writing as crucial life skills.  Using our inclusive approach we ensure all children are supported to make progress and achieve well. By the time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.

In Year R and Key Stage One, phonics is taught daily for approximately twenty minutes per day.  The key skills of blending sounds for reading, segmenting words for spelling, recognising ‘tricky’ words, learning letter shapes and names as well as learning the alphabet are all vital components children learn as readers and writers. 

Early Reading 

Phonics is further embedded in our school, through our complimentary Bug Club reading scheme.  Children use our Bug Club decodable books which are linked to the phase that they are learning as well as our banded Bug Club scheme.   

Bug Club banded books are a thread which runs through the whole school from Year R to Year 6 to ensure reading is consistent, progressive and linked to children’s next steps.   Throughout our reading scheme, children are exposed to a variety of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts to ensure children have a broad and balanced reading diet.