Our planning is based on the Government publication Letters and Sounds where phonics is taught systematically in a specific order.

Phases 1-4 are taught in the Foundation Stage.

In Years 1 and 2 we revise Phase 2-4 and then move onto Phases 5 and 6.

Phase One: Early phonics teaching involves practitioners training the children to become more aware of sounds in their environment.

Phase Two: In Phase 2 the children are taught the sounds that letters make (phonemes). There are 44 sounds in all. Some are made with two letters. In Phase 2 children focus on learning the 19 most common single letter sounds.

Phase Three: Phase 3 introduces the children to the remaining, less common/more tricky sounds.

Phase 4: In Phase 4 children become more confident with all phonemes. Here they build upon and refine their knowledge with more spelling patterns, tricky words and increasing vocabulary.

Phase 5: At Phase 5 the children are introduced to alternative spellings (graphemes) and pronunciations.

Phase 6: By the end of Phase 6 (end of Year 2) children should be fluent readers and accurate spellers. They will have covered prefixes, suffixes, plurals, etc.