Phonics - Saltburn Primary School

Excellence is achieved by the mastery of the fundamentals.

Vince Lombardi

At Saltburn Primary School, we believe that reading is the foundation for success across the curriculum. The ability to decode confidently and fluently opens the door to learning, enriches children’s experiences, and strengthens their future life chances. Teaching children to read, write and communicate effectively is one of our core purposes.

Our approach to phonics ensures that all children build secure early reading skills through:

systematic, consistent high-quality phonics teaching
strong subject knowledge
carefully sequenced progression
continuous assessment and targeted support

We use the Sounds4Life programme, which incorporates synthetic phonics, sight vocabulary, decoding, encoding, spelling and accurate letter formation. The programme is structured across five progressive phases, enabling children to move from sound discrimination to confident word reading and writing.

Aims

Through robust teaching practices, we aim to develop core areas for our children as they engage in the study of phonics and support them in their application of this skill in other areas of the curriculum.

To be able to apply the skill of blending phonemes in order to read words.	To be able to segment words into their constituent phonemes in order to spell words.
To be able to read common exception words that are within their phonics capabilities as early as possible.	To be able to decode texts effortlessly so all their resources can be used to comprehend what they read.
To learn that blending and segmenting are both reversible processes.

Local context

The English language contains 44 phonemes, and these can be represented through numerous different grapheme combinations, and regional accents influence how these are pronounced. Saltburn is geographically positioned between the North East and North Yorkshire and has increasing mobility of families from other regions of the UK. This results in a wide range of spoken accents within our community.

We recognise the following:

pronunciation varies naturally across regions
children’s phonological understanding is shaped by the language spoken around them
both northern and southern pronunciation variants are valid

Our teaching therefore focuses on the sound–letter relationships that best support the children in our classrooms, reflecting the natural speech patterns they encounter daily. This ensures phonics teaching is authentic, inclusive and accessible for all

How will we enrich cultural capital?

We understand that not all children begin school with the same experiences or opportunities. It is our responsibility to enrich every child’s early reading journey and promote reading for pleasure.

We enhance cultural capital through:

access to a well-stocked school library and local library visits
engagement with local bookshops
visits and workshops from local authors
high-quality texts linked to the wider curriculum
parental workshops to strengthen reading partnerships at home

Teaching Phonics at Saltburn

We teach phonics daily in Early Years and Key Stage 1, with interventions continuing into Key Stage 2 where needed. Lessons follow the Sounds4Life progression and structure, ensuring consistency and fidelity to the programme.

EYFS: Nursery (Phase 1)

Children develop early phonological awareness through:

sound discrimination (environmental, instrumental, body percussion)
rhythm, rhyme, alliteration
voice sounds
oral blending and segmenting

This prepares children for grapheme–phoneme correspondence learning in Reception.

Reception (Phases 2–3)

Children are taught to:

recognise, say and form Phase 2 and 3 phonemes and graphemes
read and spell words containing GPCs taught
segment and blend with increasing independence
read decodable texts matched to their phonics phase
read and spell tricky words from Phases 2–3
write simple sentences using taught phonemes

Daily review routines ensure retrieval of prior learning.

Year 1 (Phase 4-5)

Children learn:

alternative graphemes for known phonemes
alternative phonemes for known graphemes
a wider range of grapheme–phoneme correspondences
to make accurate spelling choices based on phoneme patterns
to read and spell all Phase 2–5 tricky words

Children apply their phonics knowledge to reading fully decodable books and engage in regular assessment and targeted practice for the Phonics Screening Check.

Year 2

Targeted support remains in place for children who did not meet the expected standard in Year 1.

Assessment and Support

We use ongoing formative assessment to identify next steps and provide the following:

in-lesson targeted support
small-group or 1:1 intervention
rapid catch-up sessions
differentiated activities within continuous provision

Summative assessment includes:

half-termly phonics assessments
ongoing tricky word monitoring
phonics screening practice materials (Year 1 and targeted Year 2)

Children who require additional support continue to access structured phonics and reading interventions.

Home Learning and Partnerships with Parents

We use the government-validated Bug Club scheme, published by Pearson, to ensure that every child takes home reading books that are precisely matched to their current phonics phase and the sounds they have learned in school. This alignment supports confidence, fluency and successful application of phonics knowledge.

We work in partnership with families by sharing phonics information through online platforms and workshops held in school. This helps parents and carers feel informed and able to support their child’s reading development effectively at home.

Alongside decodable books, we encourage children to enjoy a wide range of other texts when reading with adults. During these shared reading moments, parents are encouraged to model fluent, expressive reading to support children’s prosody and comprehension. Parents are encouraged to share books for pleasure beyond decodable texts to foster a love of reading.

Weekly home-learning tasks linked to the phonics programme are sent home to give children further opportunities to practise the phonemes and graphemes they are learning. These tasks are also available on the school website.