At The Links Primary School we strive to ensure all children become successful, fluent readers and writers by the end of Key Stage One. We believe children can achieve this through a combination of strong, high quality, discrete phonics teaching combined with daily opportunities for remembering fundamental reading and writing skills.
At The Links, our Phonics programme has been developed using a sequenced series of daily lessons by reviewing, introducing, practising and applying new sounds. We have designed our very own, well-planned scheme which validates the systematic synthetic approach to teaching phonics. The Links Primary Phonics Scheme has been designed and scaffolded from Early Years to KS1 for children to have a rooted knowledge of all sounds. There is a structured route, inspired from Letters and Sounds, which children follow in their year groups. Children are provided with high quality teaching and reading books that help them decode sufficiently to become fluent readers.
All trained adults, including parents, will support children to use their phonic knowledge in everyday life, to enrich their reading for both pleasure and information. To ensure children have the opportunity to practise and apply the phonics they have been taught at school, phased tricky words are sent home alongside phonetically decodable books and they have access to Phonics Play online.
For children who risk falling behind, teachers redeliver the sound in smaller groups.
Children at The Links will crack the phonics code with confidence and accuracy, offering children a solid base for reading and writing for Key Stage 2 and beyond.
Parent Phonics Workshops
Throughout the school year, we offer after-school parent workshops. It is encouraged for all parents to attend a workshop as they offer guidance on understanding the systematic synthetic approach to phonics at The Links Primary School.
We want to ensure that parents are helping children read at home, and they have a secure knowledge of phonic sounds and blending skills. Ultimately, helping all our children be successful readers.
Videos of the sounds are also available on the website for you to access at home for guidance.
The Phonics Test
Phonics screening tests take place when the children are in Year 1. This usually happens at the beginning of June and consists of 40 words that children have to blend and read. The pass rate is usually around 32 or 33 out of 40 but this can differ
year to year. If your child is unsuccessful at passing the phonics screening test, they have another opportunity to take the test in Year 2.
What is the phonics screening check?
This is a quick check of how the children have responded to synthetic phonics as a strategy for developing their ability to read. It is a statutory requirement and it involves your child decoding words using only their phonic knowledge. It helps us to confirm whether they have met the expected standard for a child at the end of Year 1. The children have been fantastic throughout this process and it has been made as enjoyable as possible!
How does the check work?
- Your chid is asked to read 40 words aloud to a teacher who is known to them.
- Your child may have read some of the words before, while others would have been completely new.
- The check took only a few minutes to complete and there was no time limit.
Meeting the expected standard
The check is scored out of 40 and the pass mark in the pass has been out of 32. This is subject to change.
All children, regardless of their mark, will continue to access phonics learning until the end of Y2 at least. If your child did not achieve 32 marks or more, they will be given additional support in phonics to help them to improve. The nature of this support will vary depending on how close to the threshold they were, and they will be checked again later in the year.
Can I help my child with phonics?
Children make the best use of their understanding of phonics when they are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading a wide variety of books and other forms of writing. Parents play a very important part in helping with this. Please see overleaf for some simple steps to help your child learn to read through using phonics successfully.
Strategies for supporting your child in reading through phonics:
- Ask your child’s class teacher about the school’s approach to teaching phonics and how you can reinforce this at home. For example, their teacher will be able to tell you which letters and sounds the class is covering in lessons each week.
- When reading, encourage your child to ‘sound out’ unfamiliar words and then blend the sounds together from left to right, rather than looking at the pictures to guess the word. Once your child has read an unfamiliar word you can talk about what it means and help him/her to follow the story.
- Try to make time to read something with your child every day and encourage other family members and friends to do the same. Support your child to blend the sounds together all the way through a word.
- Keep reading all the time, wherever you are, including the school holidays when children don’t have a home reading book from school. Look for as many opportunities as possible to encourage your child to use the skills they are learning – menus and leaflets and on-screen text can stimulate children to want to practise their phonic knowledge.
- Word games like ‘I-spy’ can also be an enjoyable way of teaching children about sounds and letters as can talking about all the words which surround you, from road signs to shopping lists. If children become aware of the uses of reading, they become much more interested in practising what they know.
Sound pronunciation for phonics
