Phonics

At Horbury Primary Academy, we believe that the key to our pupils’ success is their ability to read so it is our aim to get all children to read well quickly.

We follow the Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme, Essential Letters and Sounds. We ensure fidelity to the programme by following the sequence of the phonic content consistently, from start to finish. This approach enables children to secure optimum progress in their acquisition of phonic knowledge and skills.

The principles of ELS are based upon:

• the delivery of whole-class, high-quality first teaching with well-structured daily lesson plans
• the use of consistent terminology by teachers, children and parents
• the use of consistent resources that support effective teaching
• repetition and reinforcement of learning
• regular and manageable assessment to ensure that all children ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’

ELS teaches children to read using a systematic synthetic phonics approach. It is designed to be used as part of an early learning environment that is rich in talk and story, where children experience the joy of books and language whilst rapidly acquiring the skills to become fluent independent readers and writers. ELS teaches children to:

• decode by identifying each sound within a word and blending them together to read fluently
• encode by segmenting each sound to write words accurately.

Parent information:

The following videos will help with the pronunciation of the sounds.

Phase 2 sounds  – https://vimeo.com/641445921/9382cf6db0

Phase 3 sounds – https://vimeo.com/642342878/59d233684c