At Severnbanks, we believe that strong early reading skills lay the foundation for lifelong learning. Phonics is a vital part of our approach to teaching reading, helping children to decode words, build fluency, and develop a love of books. We follow a structured, systematic phonics programme that supports every child to become a confident and capable reader. On this page, you’ll find information about our phonics teaching, resources to support learning at home, and guidance for families.

🔤 The Importance of Phonics

At Severnbanks Primary School, we recognise phonics as a vital building block in learning to read and write. Word-reading and comprehension are the two essential dimensions of reading. Skilled word-reading involves decoding unfamiliar words and recognising familiar ones—both of which rely on understanding that letters represent sounds in spoken language.

Fluent decoding supports comprehension, allowing children to focus on meaning rather than individual words. A strong grasp of phonics also underpins accurate spelling, helping children become confident, fluent writers (DfE, 2012).

Phonics is the method of teaching reading and writing by correlating sounds (phonemes) with letters or groups of letters (graphemes). There are 44 phonemes in the English language, represented in various ways—for example, the sound /t/ in tin or /ck/ in duck. Children learn to identify these sounds, match them to letters, and use them for reading and spelling.

 Phonics in Nursery – Phase One

In Nursery, we focus on Phase One of phonics, which develops children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundation for later phonics learning. The emphasis is on tuning into sounds and building oral blending and segmenting skills.

Phase One is divided into seven aspects, each with three strands: tuning in to sounds, listening and remembering sounds, and talking about sounds.

Phase One Aspects:

1. Environmental Sounds – Listening walks, sound lotto games, and outdoor sound exploration

2. Instrumental Sounds – Exploring sound makers and instruments through stories and play

3. Body Percussion – Songs, rhymes, and rhythm activities

4. Rhythm and Rhyme – Rhyming stories, clapping syllables, and rhyming games

5. Alliteration – I-Spy games and sound-matching activities

6. Voice Sounds – Activities like Metal Mike to explore vocal sounds and oral blending

7. Oral Blending and Segmenting – Practising sound blending and segmenting with real objects

Nursery children take home a Reading Planet Lift-off Lilac book weekly, along with a library book of their choice. These are also available digitally via the Reading Planet Online Platform to encourage a love of reading at home.

 Phonics in Reception and Year 1

We follow the Rocket Phonics programme—a fully resourced Systematic Synthetic Phonics scheme that supports children in learning to read and write. Teachers use a blend of digital and printed resources, including matched decodable reading books and an online platform for home access.

Rocket Phonics Structure:

• Daily 30-minute lessons

• Review, Teach, Practise, Apply format

• Digital and printed resources for school and home use

By the end of Reception, children working at Age-Related Expectations will:

• Know all Set 1 sounds and Common Exception Words

• Complete Practice Books 1–3

• Be reading Yellow or Yellow Plus level books

By the end of Year 1, children will:

• Know all Set 2 sounds and Common Exception Words

• Complete Practice Books 4–6

• Be reading Orange level books

📚 Phonics in Year 2 and Beyond

In Year 2, children consolidate their knowledge of the alphabetic code. No new sounds are introduced, but decoding strategies are revisited to support reading unfamiliar words.

By Phase 6, children should be able to read hundreds of words using one of three strategies:

• Reading automatically

• Decoding silently

• Decoding aloud

Children also begin to spell most words accurately (encoding), though spelling typically develops more slowly than reading. They learn:

• Prefixes and suffixes (e.g. in-, -ed)

• Past tense forms

• Memory strategies for high-frequency words

• Proofreading techniques

• Dictionary use

• Apostrophe placement (e.g. I’m)

• Spelling rules

Although formal phonics teaching is usually complete by the end of Year 2, children continue to apply their phonics knowledge throughout their education. The goal is not just to learn sounds, but to use them as tools for independent reading and writing.

📖 Technical Vocabulary Explained

• Phoneme – The smallest unit of sound (e.g. /s/, /ch/)There are 44 phonemes in English. Phonemes can be put together to make words.

• Grapheme – The written representation of a phoneme (e.g. sh, tch, ough)Graphemes can be made up from 1 letter e.g. p, 2 letters e.g. sh, 3 letters e.g. tch or 4 letters e.g ough

• Digraph – Two letters that make one sound (e.g. ck)

• Trigraph – Three letters that make one sound (e.g. igh)

• GPC (Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence) – Matching letters to sounds

• Blending – Combining sounds to read a word. This is the basis of reading.

• Oral Segmenting – Breaking a spoken word into sounds. Children need to develop this skill before they will be able to segment words to spell them.

• Segmenting – Writing down the sounds in a word to spell it This is the basis of spelling.