Reading

Reading and Phonics

At Royles Brook, we follow the Lancashire Red Rose Letters and Sounds Programme, providing a synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics, from Foundation Stage, through KS1 and into KS2 if appropriate. This ensures that phonics is taught regularly, discretely and in an agreed sequence. The programme focuses on securing word recognition skills, essential for children to decode (read) and encode (spell) words accurately and language comprehension. 

The programme is in six phases: Phase One promotes speaking/listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending/segmenting; Phases Two to Five focus on high quality phonic work to help children develop fluent word reading and spelling skills. Each session gives an opportunity for children to revisit their previous experience; be taught new skills; practice together and apply what they have learned.

Blending and segmenting are, in the words of the Rose Review, ‘reversible processes’: that is, if you can blend the sounds together to read a word, you should also be able to identify and break down (segment) the individual sounds in a word you hear to spell it. To spell the word, you need to represent each sound you hear by a letter – or more than one letter.

Tricky Words

Children are also taught to read words that are not completely phonically regular, often called ‘tricky’ words. Children are taught to read these tricky words on sight, so that they do not have to spend time trying to work them out. The teaching of these tricky words is systematically embedded into our phonics lessons.

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