Intent

Our Phonics curriculum aims to ensure that pupils at Rayleigh Primary School move into Key Stage 2 as confident, fluent readers. We cascade a love of reading throughout our phonics curriculum in unison with reading in all subjects. Phonics is key to becoming a secure reader, one who develops a love of reading and can apply comprehension skills to the world of text around them. We teach phonics systematically and creatively, to incite a love of words and reading in our youngest pupils. 

Implementation
Children begin learning phonics through the ‘Monster Phonics’ programme as soon as they enter our Nursery/EYFS, starting with Phase 1 and continuing right the way through to Phase 6 in Year 2. Pupils will continue phonics into Year 3 if extra support is needed in this area. 

Phonics sessions are delivered in 25-30 minute slots, daily. Phonics lessons are systematic, fast paced, fun and highly-structured with high expectations of our young readers. Each session gives an opportunity for children to revisit their previous learning, before they are taught new skills which they then practise and apply.

Our reading scheme books match phonic ability so that they can be read at home as well as school. The children are assigned books which match the phonics sounds they have been learning and can change their book independently from the phonics phase they are on starting in Year 1. Children are also assigned a weekly ebook which matches the sound they have been learning in class. Parents are invited to annual phonics online workshops, delivered by Monster Phonics, where they gain a clear understanding of how to support early reading at home. 

Teachers and LSAs are fully trained in phonics teaching and frequent monitoring from the Phonics Lead ensures high quality teaching and same day intervention. Classrooms have Monster Phonics working walls which children can refer to throughout the day. 

Pupils’ progress is assessed during phonics sessions, supplemented by observations in shared reading and through individual assessments. Pupils are informally assessed throughout sessions (formative assessment) and future phonics sessions are planned accordingly. 

All children are formally assessed at the end of each term in the following areas:
• grapheme phoneme correspondence knowledge
• segmenting and blending
• reading of tricky words
• reading of non-words

At the end of Year One, it is statutory for all children to complete the Year One Phonics Screening Check. This usually takes place in June. Children who do not achieve the required standard will retake the Check the following year to ensure they have made good progress. 

Impact
Pupils of Rayleigh Primary School look forward to their daily phonics sessions and become enthusiastic, fluent readers. Continuous teacher assessment means that sounds are not missed and all children are given the best start with their early reading skills.

More about MONSTER PHONICS

Monster Phonics is the DfE validated child-centred phonics programme that rapidly improves results. Children make progress because the approach is meaningful, interactive, and easy to understand, creating high engagement.

Who is it for?

Monster Phonics is a whole-class Systematic Synthetic Phonics Scheme with Decodable Books for children in Reception and Key Stage 1. It is also used as an intervention in Key Stages 1 and 2.

Colour-coding

Monster Phonics teaches children to read by enabling them to identify the individual graphemes (letter combinations) and blend the sounds (phonemes) together to read the word. It is a fun way to teach phonics, since it is multi-sensory. Sounds are categorised into ten colour groups, and each colour has a corresponding monster character. Monster Phonics is a highly advanced multisensory scheme. This creates interest and engagement from the children.

• Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
• Decodable books aligned to the programme. Guided reading sets and eBooks.
• 26 online module Training Programme which includes 4 meetings in the first year with an assigned experienced trainer.
• Intervention for every learning objective to keep up and not catch up
• Letter formation and handwriting for every grapheme
• Parent logins and phonics webinars