Phonics Vision Statement

Here at Fairview, we aim to engender a passion and love for reading within children, who become both independent and reflective readers and who can read fluently and for meaning. Part of this process is the teaching of phonics.  

Phonics is taught using a systematic and synthetic approach in EYFS and Key Stage One. Synthetic phonics is a method of teaching reading that focuses on the link between letters and sounds. This approach is based on breaking down and blending letters so that children learn to link sounds with individual letters and phonemes. Our children enjoy regular phonics lessons as part of a systematic programme, gaining satisfaction from putting their learning into practice in their reading and writing. 

Phonics Screening - June

In June our year 1 children will take part in the phonics screening. We recently held a parent workshop to explain the screening which can be found here. 

Below are some PowerPoints which contain words similar to those in the screening. Please use these to practise with your child. They need to sound out the word, spotting the grapheme (if present) and then blend the word together correctly. 

Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS)

At Fairview, we follow the ELS phonics scheme. 

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's Phonics Workshop

We held a phonics workshop for parents to explain how we teach phonics and reading using the ELS scheme in reception and year 1. This presentation can be found below:

Futher Information For Parents

Oxford Owl

The Oxford Owl website is where we share a weekly book linked with the sounds that the children are learning during our phonics sessions. It is imperative that parents are using this online book, as it links directly to the children's phonics session and will support their reading and writing skills. We also use the online books to read with the children at school. 

Click here to go to the log in page of Oxford Owl.