Phonics and early reading

Engaged. Skilled. Fluent.

Eastwood Community School has a rigorous whole school approach to the teaching of phonics through daily teaching sessions and ongoing assessment. All children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1, 2, 3 and smaller groups in lower and upper key stage 2 when needed, are taught phonic skills through a range of engaging teaching methods.

The dedicated daily phonics lessons follow a thorough programme to ensure the rapid learning of skills. The Rocket Phonics framework is used throughout school and as a school have developed actions for each sound to ensure it is accessible for all learners .

Phonics is taught daily for 20 minutes. We use the Rigby Star Reading scheme in Reception and Key Stage One, which matches our phonics programme. Children are given many opportunities to practice and apply their phonic knowledge independently in areas of provision and through teacher led tasks to help this knowledge to stick.

“Good phonics instruction is about learning the architecture of words, what they are made of. It’s about putting words together and taking them apart.” Heidi Anne Mesmer

You can read more about our phonics curriculum here:

Phonics Curriculum 2022

Phonics Vision Statement