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Phonics
BackEssential Letters and Sounds
At Oxclose Primary Academy, we use Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) to teach phonics. ELS is a synthetic phonics programme which is used to help children learn to read in Reception and Key Stage 1.
What is Synthetic Phonics?
Synthetic phonics is a way of teaching children to read. It teaches children how sounds are represented by written letters. Children are taught to read words by blending these sounds together to make words.
For example, they will be taught that the letters ‘m-a-t’ blend together to make ‘mat’. A synthetic phonics programme, such as ELS, is a structure for teaching these sounds in a certain order to build up children’s learning gradually. It is used daily in Reception and Year 1 to teach all the sounds in the English language. ELS sessions and interventions are also taught in Year 2, and into Key Stage 2, for those pupils who still require access to phonics teaching beyond Key Stage 1.
Strong Foundations
The teaching of early reading begins as soon as our children start Reception where they begin to learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and blending.
At Oxclose Primary Academy, we recognise the importance of all children making a strong start in learning to read. We have adopted the Essential Letters and Sounds systematic phonics programme. This is a rigorous programme which ensures children in Reception and Key Stage 1 quickly gain the phonics knowledge and early reading skills that they need.
Pupils work within mixed ability groups led by the class teacher or highly skilled teaching assistant. Children are assessed every half term to identify bespoke 1-1 and small group support through our carefully planned intervention programme. Through careful assessment and tracking, our pupils are supported to make good progress and achieve their potential.
At Oxclose, we use ELS to teach a daily phonics lesson where the teacher teaches a new sound, or reviews sounds learned earlier in the week. This is shown to the class on the whiteboard.
Children learn the letters that represent the sounds. They are then asked to read words and sentences with the new sounds in.
Support for reading at home
We are keen to involve and support parents and carers as their children begin learning phonics through drop-in coffee mornings and information meetings. Please click on the links below for support with ‘pure sounds’ for phase 2, 3 and 5 of Essential Letters and Sounds.
Phase 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFnAcXHOUQ
