Wormholt Park
Primary School

Phonics

“Phonics is the combining of sounds and symbols. It opens the door to reading.”

Our intent at Wormholt Park School is that all children will learn to read and develop a lifelong love for reading! We believe that phonics is an important first step on every child’s journey to becoming a confident and fluent reader.

At Wormholt Park, we teach phonics using the Essential Letters and Sounds Scheme. All children in Reception and KS1 take part in daily phonics lessons. These daily 40-minute lessons are planned and structured to give all children the opportunity to review, learn, practice and apply their phonic skills.

This is a comprehensive, synthetic phonics programme aimed at teaching children how to read. The 44+ phonemes and spelling strategies are divided and taught in 6 phases.

  • Phase 1 is taught in Nursery
  • Phase 2, 3 and 4 in Reception
  • Phase 5 in Year 1 and
  • Phase 6 in Year 2

All phases are revised and revisited when needed with regular reviews planned for. All staff in Early Years and KS1 are trained to teach all the phonic phases.

We assess the children every half term. These assessments are used to track progress and enable teachers to adapt lessons as needed and close any identified gaps, enabling children to keep up not catch up.  Interventions are delivered for children working below age related expectations. These may take place in phonic lessons or as 1:1 additional sessions

In the Early Years and KS1, children take home phonetically decodable books matched to their phonic phase.  

At the end of Year 1, all children take part in the statutory Phonics Check.  Children not meeting the required standard then receive further phonic support in Year 2 and re-take the check.

Phonics may also be taught in KS2 to those children who have been assessed as still working within the six phases. This is group work and part of intervention programs. These children will also take home phonetically decodable books matched to their phonic knowledge. All new children to our school, are assessed in phonics and will receive relevant support if necessary.