Kirkstall Valley Primary School

English: Phonics and Spelling

Our teaching of English includes phonics, reading, writing, handwriting and EGPS (English, punctuation, grammar and spelling). Please find here the primary national curriculum for English:

Link to English NC

We teach phonics using the DfE accredited Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Programme. In Early Years and Key Stage One, phonics is taught in a daily discrete session. Children have the opportunity to consolidate their phonics understanding during guided reading lessons, working through Big Cat for Little Wandle phonically decodable books until they are able to read fluently using all of the grapheme phoneme correspondences (GPCs) that they should know following our phonics programme. Any children requiring daily extra practice or intervention receive this provision using tightly structured interventions. Some children require further phonics support beyond the point where the teaching of Little Wandle would end. Small, targeted groups of phonically decodable readers in Year Two and Key Stage Two take place daily to ensure all children have the strongest foundations possible to become fluent readers.

At Kirkstall Valley Primary, we are consistent in our teaching routines, mantras and use or resources. For example, pupils will sound talk a word to model the segmenting of words into phonemes to help children to read and spell. We use sound buttons so that children can identify GPCs they recognise, helping them to read accurately. These strategies are modified appropriately for the teaching of spelling after children have finished our phonics programme.

Please see the Little Wandle’s parent page for a quick guide to our phonic teaching strategies.

Spelling is taught discretely three times per week in Key Stage Two following the Sounds & Syllables curriculum which covers the requirements for spelling. Children are taught a weekly spelling pattern with a set of words that exemplify this each week and are tested weekly on the spelling lists provided. Children also receive a personal spelling list of up to 6 words each half term to be learnt at home. Children are encouraged to practise these spellings regularly at home as part of their homework.

Lessons are designed to help children to break down and spell words and to analyse and understand their structure. Children learn the spellings through study of morphology (root words/prefixes & suffixes) and etymology (word origin). Spellings are taught using sounds (phonemes) and syllables (a single ‘beat’ in a word) and consists of a five step teaching sequence:

Y3 Overview Tier 3 Overview

Y4 Overview Tier 4 Overview

Y5 Overview Tier 5 Overview

Y6 Overview Tier 6 Overview

Statutory Spellings are also taught in Key Stage Two in Y3 / 4 and Y5 / 6.

YEAR 3 & 4 PDF HERE Year 3 & 4 Statutory Spellings

YEAR 5 & 6 PDF HERE Y5 & 6 Statutory Spellings

Sounds and syllables information for parents and carers

The Nessy intervention programme is used for those children who require extra support in decoding and spelling in Key Stage Two.  

Assessment in phonics is completed each half term as children progress through the phonics programme. These assessments are used to inform staff of specific gaps or need for intervention. In spelling, teachers test each week and monitor the progress of spelling within each unit.

For further information about our English curriculum, please speak to Mrs Gautrey.

Our governor with responsibility for English is . 

Phonics Long Term Plan