At Hereward Primary, our intent is for all children to be able to read with fluency and automaticity by the end of Year 2 so that they have moved beyond learning to read and are able to read to learn. 

We use the Supersonic Phonic Friends programme which is a fully systematic, synthetic phonic approach ranging from the simple to the complex spellings of the alphabetic code. Supported by their Supersonic Phonic friends, this approach will ensure children develop confidence and apply each skill to their own reading and writing. This programme is validated with the DFE.

What is Synthetic Phonics?

•How sounds are represented by letters

•How to decode letters to say sounds

•How to blend (synthesise) sounds to read words

Children are systematically taught:                                                                                 

•letter-sound correspondences

•to read words by blending sounds

•to spell by identifying sounds in words

 (segmenting spoken words)

•to form letters

This is called 'segmenting' the sounds in a word. 

When the sounds are read together, it is called 'blending'.

At the end of Year 1, all children must participate in the Government's 'Phonics Screening Check'. This is to see if they are working at, or towards, the required national standard in terms of phonics skills.