The Forge Trust’s policy is to use the Letters and Sounds framework (2007) to plan our phonics provision. We believe that the document, which is ‘designed to help practitioners and teachers teach children how the alphabet works for reading and spelling’, provides a sound foundation for high-quality phonics teaching and learning.
Phonics teaching across our Trust is underpinned by the key principles of effective teaching and learning and ensures that all children are taught age-appropriate content.
We adopt a whole-class, age-related approach that promotes high expectations for all children. This enables pupils to secure the foundations of phonics and the basic code by the end of Reception and to master phonics for fluent reading by the end of Year 1.
Our structured teaching sequence provides regular opportunities for practice and consolidation alongside the introduction of new learning. It also recognises the importance of building reading proficiency in order to develop accuracy in spelling.
For children who continue to require phonics support beyond Key Stage 1, we maintain the same high-expectation, age-appropriate approach to help them secure the foundational knowledge needed and to bridge any remaining gaps.
Phonics interventions follow an adapted version of the Letters and Sounds lesson structure—Review, Teach, Practise and Apply—across the weekly cycle. The process is outlined in more detail below.
The children are assessed on GPC recognition, decodable word reading and common exception word reading. Through this assessment, gaps in the children’s knowledge are identified and will inform the focus of the next stages for this weekly cycle.
Gaps in the children’s GPC recognition are taught during 10 minute daily interventions, with a variety of activities focusing on one GPC. This includes activities focusing on decoding words containing the focus GPC and building fluency in reading those words.
Practise of the focus GPC takes place as part of the activities in the intervention. One intervention session per week will also recap the GPC’s and words from the previous sessions before moving on.
Children take home a decodable reading book each week that is matched to the GPCs they have worked on.
The Review section of the next weekly cycle will asses the children on the GPCs and words they have covered in previous weeks.
‘Letters & Sounds’ is the government programme for teaching phonics and high frequency words. It is split into 6 phases:
Phase 1 helps children begin to learn phonics in a fun and structured way, and usually starts in Nursery or Playgroup.
Teachers plan activities that encourage children to listen carefully to the sounds around them, such as the noises their toys make, as well as the different sounds in spoken language.
They also teach a wide range of nursery rhymes and songs, and enjoy reading quality books to and with the children.
These experiences help to build children’s vocabulary and support them in talking confidently about the stories they hear.
🏠Things to try at home:
In Phase 2, children are introduced to phonemes (the sounds) and the graphemes (the letters) that represent them.
Children learn how to pronounce each sound clearly to make blending easier. We encourage the use of pure sounds (for example, saying /b/ rather than “buh”, and /c/ rather than “cuh”).
s a t p i n m d
g o c k ck e u r
h b f ff l ll ss
They will also learn to read these five tricky words:
the to I no go
By the end of Phase 2, children should be able to orally blend simple CVC words (for example, hearing c–a–t and saying cat) and orally segment CVC words (for example, hearing mum and identifying the sounds m–u–m).
The purpose of Phase 3 is to teach 25 new graphemes (letters or letter groups), many of which are made up of two letters (for example, oa). These help children represent all 42 phonemes (sounds) in English.
During this phase, children continue to practise blending and segmenting for reading and spelling (for example, pool).
They will learn the following graphemes and example words:
j v w x y z zz qu ch
jug, van, wig, box, yes, zip, buzz, quit, rich
sh th ng ai igh oa oo oo ar
shop, moth, king, rain, high, loaf, look, moon, park
or ur ow oi ear air ure er
port, burn, town, boil, hear, pair, pure, hotter
Children will also learn to read 12 new tricky words:
he she we me be was
my you her they all are
By the end of Phase 3, children should also be able to spell the five tricky words taught in Phase 2.
In Phase 4, children continue to practise the graphemes and phonemes they have already learned. They also learn how to read and write longer words made up of adjacent consonants.
Children work on reading and writing CVCC words, such as:
tent, damp, toast, chimp
For example, in the word toast:
t = consonant, oa = vowel, s = consonant, t = consonant
They also practise CCVC words, such as:
swim, plum, sport, flag, spoon
For example, in the word flag:
f = consonant, l = consonant, a = vowel, g = consonant
During Phase 4, children learn an additional 14 tricky words:
some, come, one, said, do, so, were
when, have, there, out, like, little, what
By this stage, children should also be able to write the tricky words taught in Phase 3.
They will learn to recognise and read adjacent consonants (initial and final blends), such as bl, dr, sc, ft, and st. These can be sounded out, but children are encouraged to recognise them as common patterns to support fluent reading.
The purpose of Phase 5 phonics is to broaden children’s knowledge of graphemes and phonemes so they can become more confident, fluent readers and spellers.
During this phase, children learn that many sounds can be spelled in different ways. For example, the /ai/ sound can be written in several forms, as in rain, day, and make.
Children will learn the following graphemes and example words:
ay ou ie ea oy ir ue
play, cloud, treat, ploy, girl, blue/cue
aw wh ph ew oe au ey
saw, whisk, phonics, chew/pew, toe, haunt, key
a-e e-e i-e o-e u-e
cake, theme, time, bone, June/cute
They will also learn 8 new tricky words:
oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked
Phase 5 also introduces children to alternative pronunciations for graphemes they already know.
For example, ea can make different sounds in words such as tea and head.
This phase helps children become more flexible and fluent readers and writers by giving them the tools to decode and spell a much wider range of words.
In Phase 6, the focus is on learning spelling rules for word endings or suffixes.
They learn how words change when you add certain letters. There are 12 different suffixes taught…
The children are also expected to be able to read and write the ‘next 200 commons words’.
-s -es -ing -ed
-er -est -y -en
-ful -ly -ment -ness