Phonics Curriculum Statement
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ASPIRE - LEARN - FLOURISH
The Aspire Learning Federation is made up of two schools - Elm Park Primary School and R J Mitchell Primary School in the London Borough of Havering.
At R J Mitchell we want to promote a love for reading, which includes pupils learning to read and eventually reading independently. Phonics is at the heart of our curriculum, and we use a systematic, synthetic phonics programme (Read Write Inc.) to ensure all children, regardless of their starting points, make excellent progress in their reading development. From the moment children join us in Reception, they engage in daily, high-quality phonics lessons that teach them to recognise the sounds in words and blend sounds together to read words.
Our phonics programme is carefully structured to build children's knowledge sequentially, introducing new sounds and skills in a logical progression. Children practise blending sounds together to read words, and segmenting words into sounds to support their spelling. Children are also taught ‘red words’ which are sight words and are not phonetically decodable. Through regular assessment and targeted interventions, we closely monitor each child's progress, providing additional support where needed to keep them on track.
We use the engaging character of "Fred the Frog" to support our pupils' learning, as he can only talk in sounds, a technique we call "Fred Talk." Pupils also use "Fred Fingers" to help them segment words into sounds, further reinforcing their phonics skills.
Throughout Early Years, Year 1, and Year 2, all of our pupils participate in daily phonics lessons, which are tailored to their individual needs. We organise our pupils into small groups based on the specific sounds and skills they are learning, ensuring that each child receives the targeted support they require to progress. At the end of Year 1, our pupils take the national Phonics Screening Check, and those who do not meet the expected standard will re-sit the assessment in Year 2.