Phonics and Literacy

Our Approach

At Holt Farm Infant School, we strive to cultivate a love of reading in our children. We encourage them to read both for pleasure and to gain information.

Integral to everything we do is ensuring that we provide an environment where children see the actual value of reading and develop a love for the written word.

All pupils are taught the skills and strategies to read and comprehend a variety of texts, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays. They are encouraged to read with confidence, fluency, and understanding.

Reading is promoted throughout the curriculum and occurs frequently. Teaching children to read is one of the most critical aspects of their learning, as it equips them with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to become confident and effective readers.

Every class has story time during the school day to foster a love of books and facilitate quality discussions about the texts. All our classrooms have a book corner with an array of interesting texts to instil a passion for reading in every pupil.

Our library is key to this, and children have many opportunities to visit the school library, where they can choose from a selection of fiction and non-fiction books to share with their friends. The children also visit Rochford Library to experience a working library and to encourage them to join the local library service.

Visiting storytellers, theatre groups, book weeks, and dressing up as characters from books during World Book Day are just a few ways in which we encourage children to become excited about reading.

Children at Holt Farm Infant School children learn to read by being taught a combination of

Synthetic phonics to blend and segment words
Sight recognition of high frequency words
Comprehension skills such as context clues and picture clues

PHONICS

As Phonics Lead at Holt Farm Infant School, I am committed to ensuring that every child develops a strong foundation in reading and a lifelong love of books. I believe that high-quality phonics teaching is the key to unlocking children's confidence, communication and future success.

I work closely with staff to ensure phonics is taught consistently, engagingly and effectively across the school, providing training, support and guidance to maintain high standards. Through ongoing assessment and careful monitoring, we ensure that every child receives the support and challenge they need to become successful readers.

I am dedicated to developing strong partnerships with parents, recognising the important role they play in supporting early reading at home. By working together, we can create confident, enthusiastic readers who are equipped with the skills they need to flourish throughout their education.

Mrs Jackson (Phonics Lead)

Systematic Phonics Approach

At Holt Farm Infant School, we use Twinkl Phonics, a fully systematic synthetic phonics programme that provides a clear, progressive pathway for children to develop their reading and spelling skills. Learning is carefully sequenced so that children build on their knowledge step by step, revisiting and applying previously taught sounds to ensure secure understanding. Through daily phonics lessons, children learn to recognise graphemes, blend sounds to read words and segment words for spelling, enabling them to become confident and fluent readers.

Narrative-Driven Learning

Twinkl Phonics uses engaging characters, stories and familiar contexts to bring phonics learning to life. Each level is built around a narrative that helps children make meaningful connections with the sounds and words they are learning. This storytelling approach captures children's imagination, promotes language development and encourages a love of reading, helping them to see phonics as an exciting part of their learning journey.

Multi-Sensory Teaching

We recognise that children learn in different ways, so our phonics teaching incorporates a range of multi-sensory experiences. Children hear sounds, say sounds, practise actions, engage in discussion, use visual prompts and apply their learning through practical activities. Lessons provide opportunities for children to see, hear, say and do, ensuring phonics learning is active, engaging and accessible for all learners. This multi-sensory approach helps children to retain knowledge, build confidence and develop a secure understanding of the sounds and patterns within words.

Phonics overview-

Twinkl phonics whole scheme overview

Support for parents-

Twinkl for parents

Key Vocabulary

Here is some of the terminology you might hear as your child begins to learn phonics:

Phoneme - the smallest unit of sound in words

Grapheme - the written representation of a sound GPC

Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence - being able to match a phoneme with the correct grapheme and vice versa

Blending - joining individual speech sounds together to read a word

Segmenting - breaking down words into individual speech sounds to spell a word

Digraph - two letters making one sound, e.g. ‘sh’

Trigraph - three letters making one sound, e.g. ‘igh’

Split digraph - two letters making one sound which are divided by a consonant, e.g. the i_e sound in the word ‘side’

Tricky/Common Exception Words - words that are not fully decodable, such as ‘the’ and ‘was’

Sound buttons - circles or spots that can be written underneath a sound to support reading

Sound bars - lines that can be written underneath digraphs or trigraphs to show that the letters make one sound

Mnemonic - a visual prompt to help children remember a sound

Scheme Overview

Parent guidance for supporting with phonics

READING SCHEMES

We use the Twinkl Reading Scheme 'Rhino Readers' to support children’s reading development from the early stages.

This scheme is carefully matched to our phonics teaching, ensuring children read books that align with the sounds they are learning.

Twinkl provides a wide range of engaging, levelled reading books that help children practise blending sounds, recognise high-frequency words, and build fluency.

As part of our phonics and reading programme, children learn to recognise key words—also known as tricky words or high-frequency words—by sight. These are common words that often don’t follow regular phonics rules, such as the, said, and was. These are gradually introduced to help build children’s vocabulary, reading fluency, and confidence. Recognising key words quickly supports smoother reading and helps children understand texts more easily.

As children progress through the scheme, they develop confidence, comprehension skills, and a love of reading.

Books are carefully chosen to match each child’s phonics level, enabling them to read independently and successfully. Teachers regularly assess progress to ensure children move through the scheme at the right pace.

Parent guidance for developing comprehension skills

Rhino Readers Parent Guide

HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH READING AT HOME

Share books and read regularly with your child at home
Practice the high-frequency words together
Talk about the books and ask questions about the stories
Enjoy lots of books at home as well as the school books
Visit the local library
Communicate and share your child’s progress with the teacher through the home/school reading diary.

English Policy

READING SKILLS PROGRESSION 2022.pdf