Phonics

At St Paul’s, we are committed to developing confident, fluent readers through high-quality phonics teaching. We follow the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) systematic synthetic phonics programme, which has been validated by the Department for Education.

Essential Letters and Sounds provides a clear, structured approach to the teaching of phonics, ensuring that all children build the knowledge and skills required for successful reading and writing. Through daily phonics lessons, children learn to recognise letter-sound correspondences, blend sounds to read words, and segment words for spelling.

Our phonics teaching begins in Nursery with the children learning to listen for sounds and beginning to recognise some sound to grapheme correspondence. This is then built upon in Reception and continues throughout Key Stage 1, with additional support provided for any children who need further practice. Lessons are carefully planned to ensure progression, consistency, and high expectations for all learners. Children then move on to the Essential Spelling scheme in Year 2 and Key Stage 2, which uses the same terminology and teaching sequences.

Alongside this, children take home reading books matched to their phonological knowledge and are encouraged to read these daily with their families. When children learn new sounds, they are given the grapheme to take home with them and practice these alongside their reading.

We believe that reading is the key to unlocking a lifelong love of learning. By working closely with families and providing children with engaging, decodable books that match their phonics knowledge, we help every child develop confidence, fluency, and enjoyment in reading.

By using Essential Letters and Sounds throughout the school, we strive to ensure that every child becomes a successful reader, equipped with the skills they need to thrive both in school and beyond.

At St Paul’s, we believe every child can learn to read. Through our consistent approach to phonics teaching and our partnership with parents and carers, we work together to give every child the best possible start on their reading journey.

These are some useful videos to help you when reading with your children:

ELS: Phase 2 sound pronunciation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBFnAcXHOUQ

ELS: Phase 3 sound pronunciation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDInVjBUGC0

ELS: Phase 5 sound pronunciation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BwWD2ZlvBY