Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write.  It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.  Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they are combined will help children decode words as they read.  Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words.

As a Federation, we have recently changed over to Bug Club Phonics, which is a DfE approved scheme and all relevant staff have been trained in the programme. 

What is Bug Club Phonics?

The Bug Club Phonics programme offers schools a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme.

• Features daily lessons from the start of Reception
• Teaches the main grapheme-phoneme correspondences of English in a clearly defined, incremental sequence
• Gets children reading and spelling from very early on
• Includes blending for reading and segmenting for spelling activities
• Provides opportunities for children to practise and apply known phoneme-grapheme correspondences for spelling through dictation of sounds, words and sentences
• Features language sessions that teach ‘tricky’ common exception words
• Provides resources that support the teaching of lower-case and capital letters correctly, with clear start and finish points
• Includes direct teaching sessions, with extensive teacher-child interaction and involves a multi-sensory approach
• Has reading texts that closely match what has been taught up to that point
• Includes assessments and support for the lowest 20%
• Provides full guidance for teachers to support the effective delivery of the programme
• Provides remote learning capabilities via eBooks, allocatable teaching screens and phonics games.