Our phonics lead is Mrs E Rogers.

Phonics and early reading intent

At Russell, we value reading as a key life skill, and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. Reading begins at the earliest stage when children enjoy looking at books and hearing stories being read to them.  They then learn that print conveys meaning and carefully planned and sequenced phonics teaching. At Russell, we want to give all chidren the best start with their reading journey and ensure that they develop a love of reading. 

From September 2024 we will be using the accredited phonics scheme Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) in Foundation Stage. Please see here for more information - Foundation Stage phonics. From September 2025 this will also be implemented into Year One. ELS phonics lessons ensure high-quality first teaching of phonics and give children many opportunities to review and build their sound and grapheme knowledge, word-reading skills and use of rich vocabulary.  With a strong start in Foundation Stage, all children are given the required skills to read well, quickly. 

The systematic teaching of phonics has a high priority throughout Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. 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 for enjoyment and recognise that this starts with the foundations of acquiring letter sounds, segmenting and blending skills. The scheme provides children with the skills and knowledge they need to become confident readers.

At Russell we feel that links between home and school are imperative to the children’s learning and progress. To equip parents to be able to support phonics and reading with their child at home we offer parent workshops discussing how phonics is taught, giving parents an opportunity to look at the resources we use to support learning and the opportunity to find out about the Year 1 phonic screening test expectations. 

Phonics Implementation 

From September 2024 at Russell Lower School we will be implementing the accredited phonics scheme, ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ (ELS) in Foundation Stage and then from 2025 into Year One.  ELS is delivered through whole-class lessons daily and uses the same teaching sequence -show, copy, repeat- until each child is independent.  Children are given the opportunity to hear and say each sound, first in isolation, and then within words and sentences.  When new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPC) are introduced, mnemonics or rhymes are used with an accompanying picture to ensure that all children understand.  Children hear this sound in the context of a word, and a picture and/or definition is given to support their understanding.  Practice and repetition are key.  At the end of each week, children are given opportunities to review and consolidate their understanding of all prior learning. The fifth week of every term is assessment week which follows the same structure as a review week.  This can then be used to inform future planning and children who require extra support can follow a daily intervention to support their oral blending, GPC recognition or blending for reading. 

Phonics is delivered daily as an explicit lesson in EYFS and KS1. Phonics is taught as a whole class approach to ensure that quality first teaching is accessible to all children.  Children who are identified during the session as encountering difficulties are supported by the teacher throughout the lesson and where further support is required are offered a ‘keep up’ session within the daily session, during the ‘apply’ part of the lesson.  Over-learning alongside a range of ‘apply’ activities help children who acquire phonic knowledge more slowly to succeed.

Baseline assessment takes place during children’s first week’s in Reception and after this, assessment takes place every fifth week of the term.  This information is then used as the basis for adaptation of planning and extra provision and interventions. 

The children are regularly heard read by an adult in school (by their class teacher once every 2 weeks and a TA on the week they are not heard by their class teacher) to ensure they are regularly practising and applying their phonic knowledge. It is vital that whilst learning to read, children read books that match their phonic knowledge.  We use the Oxford University Press decodable readers to support ELS.  They are carefully matched to every aspect of the programme. Books are read in school on day 5 of each week and sent home as ‘home readers’.  Children keep these books for one week and read them at least four times in this period. Re-reading ensures that children develop their reading skills and fluency. Additional one-to-one reading is offered to those children who are most vulnerable or who need to make accelerated progress, to enable them to catch up to meet age related expectations. 

Within all lessons we are working towards Rosenshine’s 17 Principles of Effective Instruction and use of the Great Teaching Toolkit. Short-term plans set out the learning objectives and success criteria for each lesson, identifying engaging activities and resources which will be used to achieve them. Within our phonics lessons pupils develop the knowledge and skills they need to support their early reading by learning how to segment and blend. We use the ‘recap, teach, practise, apply and assess’ model in our lesson across FS and KS1. Questioning, modelling and feedback are used to support the teaching and learning process, ensure progression within every lesson and aid assessment.

At Russell Lower we take every opportunity to promote the teaching of phonics across the whole curriculum and throughout the school day. We use phoneme frames in our English sessions to support spelling and will often identify the phonemes we are currently learning in any reading that happens in any lesson throughout the day. We ensure that during the school day there is ‘not a second wasted’ and we will practise songs, rhymes and phoneme flashcards while waiting in line for lunch, before we go out to play or just before home time. Phonics continues to remain our main focus and priority at Russell Lower.

In early KS1, there is a greater emphasis on phonics; this is then applied throughout the rest of the school to consolidate what has been learnt. As children build up their knowledge of sounds they are able to apply their decoding skills to any unfamiliar word, whether it be real or nonsense.  During lessons each day children will practice their decoding skills by sounding out nonsense words.  Children are unable to rely on existing knowledge of real words, and instead have to use their letter-sound knowledge. This is an important part of the Phonics Screening Check that the children complete at the end of year 1.

Extra support is provided to those in Year 2 (and in Year 3 where appropriate) who have not passed the phonics screening in Year 1. This support is implemented through small group or 1 to 1 sessions, which are run, by our experienced HLTA’s and LSA’s on a regular basis each week.

Impact 

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, we aim for the 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.

In order to measure the impact of phonics we currently use a half termly tracker to closely track the progress of the children and ensure our phonics teaching is adapted according to the assessment data. Those children who are not achieving where they should be will then receive targeted, precise support on their current phonic phase. This academic year, children have moved through the ELS reading books, which are carefully matched to the sounds the children know confidently.  Books in Year One have been assessed using our reading colour bands throughout the year and children move on to Accelerated Reader when they are ready in Year One.  All children follow the Accelerated Reader programme in Year 2. 

As a result of high quality phonics provision, children make good progress from their starting points. Over the last few years the Year 1 phonic screening result has improved and has either been in line with or above the national average.

Below is the most current phonic screening data taken from the Year 1 screening check in June 2025 (still using Letters and Sounnds):

Year 2 phonic screening retake results

98% of children across year 2 have now passed the Phonics screening check by June 2025. 

50% of the children who re-took the phonics screening check in 2025 passed.  This is 1/2 children. 

All children continue to receive high quality, dedicated, daily phonic lessons over the course of the week as well as the Phonics curriculum playing a vital role across all subject areas.

We believe reading is the key to all learning so the impact is felt across the whole of our school curriculum.

FS Reading and Writing Workshop - September 

Mrs Brown will talk you through how we approach teaching reading and writing at school and how you can support your children from home. If you cannot attend, you can view the Power Point below.  

 
As well as the link to the workshop itself, you can also find some videos demonstrating how to correctly pronounce the letter sounds . 

Reading Diary/Record: Please aim to read with your child 4 times each week, recording this in the Reading Diary. Evidence shows that this is the single biggest beneficial 'habit' you can form to support your child's success at school. Little and often practice is essential at this stage.  This should also be recorded in the Reading Diary please.  Thank you very much.

Thank you in advance for all your support from home.  A partnership between home and school allows your child to thrive and feel confident.

 
How to ask a question: If you have any queries about reading or writing at Russell you can contact the class teachers via:swanclass@russell-lower.co.uk swiftclass@russell-lower.co.uk doveclass@russell-lower.co.uk

Mrs Brown is the Phase Leader and can be contacted via Swan Class email.
Thank you so much for your time and your support. 

Year 1 and 2 Phonics workshop September 2024

Do you want to know more about the government's statutory phonics screening test your children will take this year?

Would you like to be able to better support your child’s phonics at home?

Would you like to know how we teach phonics at school, and why it is so important?

Please attend our September workshop with Mrs Rogers.  If you cannot make it, our Power Point presentation can be found below.  

Our Year 1 children all take the government screening test each June.  Any child in Year 2 who did not meet the expected standard in Year 1 will also re-take the screening test.

Our long term teaching plan for phonics and spelling can be found here: https://www.russell-lower.co.uk/website/reading_and_phonics_including_accelerated_reader/451380

If you cannot make the workshop, we would urge as many of you as possible to view this Loom 'Workshop' so that you are best able to support your children.  Just click on the link below to view it.  You can watch it as many times as you want.

Following this, should you have any questions, please contact your child’s class teacher via the class email, or Mrs Rogers (our Phonics Lead) at owlclass@russell-lower.co.uk. The slides, Loom and resources will all also be available via the ‘Parent Workshops’ tab on the school website.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Loom video link:

https://www.loom.com/share/55826329cef0413b8d75ad86d2a88e5f 

Additional resources linked to Letters and Sounds

Youtube video links:  

A typical phonics lesson structure (10 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Cd-CRbH6s&safe=active

CVCC words with segmenting (sounding out) and blending for reading (4 mins)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG-xKG7I83E
CVCC words being taught in class (reading) (3mins 30 seconds)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39R_7s2El6M
CVCC words being taught for segmenting in preparation for spelling (and writing) (4 mins 46 seconds)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5v35_jYJYw