Phonics

At Chalfont St Peter Infant School, Phonics is taught on a daily basis, with rigour and vitality. All children learn from the DfE Letters and Sounds Phonics Scheme, learning how to blend and segment for the development of Reading and Writing skills.Teachers plan daily sessions, progressing from simple to more complex phonic knowledge and skills covering the many grapheme/phoneme correspondences. (choices for sounds)

A multi-sensory approach is utilised so that children learn from simultaneous visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities which are designed to inspire, motivate and engage. Children enjoy, whole class teaching, outside learning, word hunts, reading for meaning, digraph (two letters making one sound) spotting and reading alien words.

Daily, the children read High Frequency Words and Common Exception Words that do not conform completely to the rules of spelling. They are given many opportunities to practise word recognition and spelling in order to improve writing and enable drafting and self correction.

Most children make rapid progress; however, those that find specific activities challenging are supported with differentiated tasks in order to promote confidence and enable children to attain at their individual level.

Phonics Screening Check

All Year 1 children will participate in a Phonics Screening Check. This is an assessment of individual children's decoding skills and confirms whether they have attained the required standard. Any child who finds the assessment challenging will have a further chance to participate in Year 2 where support will be given.