“Fluency First”

Implementation (How?)

Phase 1

Phonics begins in Sunflowers and Bluebells, where children develop their phonological awareness, otherwise known as Phase 1, which is the foundation for children to be able to match sounds to letters.

Essential Letters and Sounds

Phonics is taught daily by the class teacher in Reception and Year 1. Children are taught the most common grapheme- phoneme correspondences in Reception (e.g. b, f, ai, igh, ch) before moving on to the alternatives in year 1 (mb, ph, ay, i-e, tch).

See Reception and Year 1 GPC progression document

At the end of each half term your child’s class teacher will assess your child’s understanding of the sounds they have been taught so they know their individual next steps, and these will be shared with you to work on at home.

If your child has a gap in the knowledge of the sounds, interventions are delivered in addition to your child’s daily phonics lesson so they don’t miss any vital new learning.

Link to Essential Letters and Sounds

Decodable Reading Books

Your child's individual reading book will always match the sounds they know. They will never receive a book that contains sounds that they do not know. We use assessments to support us to find the book that matches your child’s needs perfectly.

Children in Reception and Year one should read at least four times per week with an adult either at home or at school. There may be some children who need a little more support and will read with an adult at school every day.

Your child will receive a reading book once a week. At first, children may be asked to read

each sentence 3 times:

1. Decode (sound out)

2. Reread with more fluency

3. Adding expression and to support comprehension

As children read more words and books, they develop their “Orthographic Map,” this allows them to read words by sight. Even when they are sight reading, it is vital that we still listen to the children read as this will support them on their journey to becoming fluent readers and writers.