Phonics and Early Reading
Welcome to KSS Phonics and Early reading!
Please see the attached knowledge, skills and vocabulary progression map from Reception to Year 6.
In January 2022 Mrs Coverdale (English lead) and Miss O'Connor started researching the options for government approved Synthetic systematic phonics schemes. They created a ‘desirables list’ which included all the aspects we believe make phonics at KSS successful.
From the available government approved schemes they narrowed these down to three. We attended training for each scheme and made a pro/cons list. Their findings resulted in ‘Twinkl phonics’ being the best scheme for the school.
Twinkl phonics had many pros such as having a song, action and a rhyme which we felt was very important for EYFS. Clear intervention tasks for children who have fallen behind or are not yet developmentally ready for the class phase. They had exciting bright resources with easy access for teachers to print as well as Ebooks to read (possibly for homework). The Scheme also comes with an option to buy rhino books these match the scheme perfectly. They can be added to Dojo as a PDF for parents to access so that they are aware of the phonemes and graphemes being taught in class. The over views and lesson plans were very similar to the letters and sounds document teachers are used to planning from and so we felt minimal training would be required. Also teachers are using Twinkl spelling and font higher up school so it is consistent throughout school.
Miss O'Connor has re-grading reading books into levels that match this scheme. This will ensure all children receive a home reading book in line with the phonics teaching they have received. The aim is still aim to send other books that do not necessarily match the scheme in order to encourage reading for pleasure, comprehension skills and a wider text exposure.
All teachers have the log in for Twinkl and have started looking at the resources. In EYFS one lesson using the Twinkl scheme has been delivered and the teacher felt it was very successful and enjoyable to teach.
