At Dersingham Primary School, we are passionate about ensuring all children become confident and enthusiastic readers and writers. The systematic teaching of phonics is a high priority throughout EYFS and Key Stage 1.  We passionately believe that teaching children to read and write independently, as quickly as possible, is one of the core purposes of a primary school. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. Using the RWI phonics scheme we teach children to read easily, fluently and with good understanding. They learn to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. Alongside decoding, there is a huge focus on children learning to write clearly, accurately and coherently.

At Dersingham, we follow the Ruth Miskin 'Read Write Inc.' scheme to teach synthetic phonics in the EYFS and Key Stage 1. The scheme has been continued in Year 2 due to previous covid restrictions. Children in Year 2 will be taking part in the phonics screening tests in December 2021. These results will be sent to the Local Authority who will then send them over to the STA. Phonics is taught daily for 45 minutes in EYFS and 1 hour in year 1 and 2. The phonics lead assesses pupil’s phonic knowledge using the phonics assessment every half term to ensure children are making rapid progress. Black and white books are sent home every week followed by a bookbag book which matches the sounds learnt and taught that week. 

Our aim is for children to become fluent readers by the end of Key Stage 1, with attainment in phonics measured by the Phonics Screening Test at the end of Year 1. By the end of the Scheme children will be able to read age-appropriate texts accurately and with sufficient speed. This means that we can then focus on developing their comprehension, preparing them to transition to Key Stage 2. Developing good decoding skills mean that children have a sound strategy for decoding unfamiliar words when they come across them at any stage or in any subject across the curriculum.