Phonics

Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Intent

​At Eccleston St. Mary's, our intent is to ensure that every child develops a strong foundation in phonics to support their reading and writing skills. Recognsing the critical role that phonics plays in early literacy, we aim to provide a structured and systematic approach to phonics education that is inclusive, engaging and tailored to the diverse needs of our pupils.

  • Fostering a Love for Reading: We strive to create enthusiastic readers who enjoy a wide range of texts. Through daily phonics lessons we instill a passion for literature that goes beyond the classroom.

  • Building Confident Writers: By equipping students with phonetic skills, we intend to empower them to express their thoughts  and ideas through writing, enhancing their communication skills.

  • Promoting Inclusivity: We are committed to ensuirng that our phonics instruciton caters for all learners, enabling them to succeed in their literary journey.

Implementation

The inplementation of our phonics programme is rigorous, consistent and built upon the latest evidence-based practices. At Eccleston St. Mary's, we use the DfE accredited scheme 'Monster Phonics' as a basis for our phonics teaching, which provides a systematic introduction of phonemes and graphemes from Early Years to Year 2.

We employ the following strategies:

  • Daily Phonics Sessions:  Every class from EYFS to Year 2 participates in daily phonics sessions lasting 20-30 minutes. Each lesson follows the Revise, Teach, Practise, Apply structure. Lessons are dynamic, incorporating multi-sensory approaches that engage all learning styles.

  • Structured Approach: We have a sructured, whole school approach to the order in which we teach phonemes which progresses in a logical sequence , starting with basic phonemes and gradually introducing more complex phonic patterns and spelling rules.

  • Assessment for Learning: Ongoing assessments are conducted to monitor pupil progress. This information informs our teaching strategies and allows us to respond and adapt planning to ensure that progress is maintained and targeted support can be deployed for children as needed, with a focus on ‘keep up not catch up’.

  • Professional Development: We ensure our staff are fully trained and supported to confidently deliver high quality phonics sessions based on the latest phonics research and best practices.

  • Parental Involvement: We actively engage parents in their children's phonics learning through workshops and resources, providing guidance on phonics strategies and reading at home to reinforce classroom learning.

  • Engaging reading resources: We have a comprehensive reading scheme in school that runs alongside the teaching of phonics. Our children are able to practise their decoding skills regularly through a series of fun, exciting and fully phonetically decodable books by Monster Phonics.

Impact

Through the teaching of systematic phonics, our aim is for children to become confident, fluent and enthusiastic readers by the end of Key Stage 1.  Children will:

  •   Demonstrate high levels of engagement in phonics and apply their knowledge when reading and writing;

  • Have an increased recognition of tricky words and high frequency words when reading and apply this knowledge when writing;

  • Progress through the different phases of phonics in line with Year Group expectations and all children will make progress from their own individual starting points.