Phonics
Hello, my name is Mrs Baxter and I have been the Phonics Lead at Sherdley Primary School since 2015. I am also the Early Years Team Leader and Pre-School teacher. I am an experienced teacher, and have taught at Sherdley since 1999. Throughout my teaching career I have had the opportunity to work in classes across Key Stage One and have spent the past 20 years working in Reception. I work closely with our Reading lead Mrs Roberts and our English coordinator Mrs Orbison.
At Sherdley, we have always valued the teaching of phonics as a successful approach towards the teaching of reading. Myself and the Deputy Head implemented the Letters and Sounds programme from DFE in 2007, providing children with daily phonics sessions across Reception and Year One. However, due to recent government’s advise, we at Sherdley adopted the systematic and synthetic phonics programme Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, (which is a validated teaching programme by the DFE), in October 2021. Through this programme we start the teaching of phonics in Pre-school as we follow the Foundations for Phonics programme. Through this we develop the children’s ability to tune into and copy sounds and orally blend CVC words by the time they start Reception. In Reception, the children start their phonics sessions after the introductory 2 weeks. We progress from 10-minute lessons, with additional daily oral blending games, to 30 minutes lessons as quickly as possible. Daily lessons continue in Year 1, and for any children who have not acheived the standard in the Phonics Screening Check, in Year 2.
Reception’s daily phonic lesson in September. They are being introduced to the Phase 2 GPCs.
In November (2022) as part of our Family Learning Week we invited parents from Pre-School and Reception to come and join us in our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds lessons. We were able to demonstrate how we teach phonics to all the parents that attended. Alongside this event the parents in Reception are also provided with the opportunity to attend a Phonic and Reading workshop to gain a greater insight into how we teach phonics and reading and how they can help support their child at home.