How we teach Phonics at Marner Primary
At Marner primary School, we follow the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP) comprehensive systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) programme, created in-line with the National Curriculum objectives and validated by the DfE, to teach word reading and spelling successfully. The aim of the THEP programme is to promote the use of Phonics as the primary route to reading unfamiliar words before any subsequent comprehension strategies are applied. The programme provides a structured route for children to meet or exceed the expected standard in the Y1 Phonics Screening Check and all National Curriculum expectations for word reading through decoding by the end of KS1.

What is Systematic Synthetic Phonics?
Systematic Synthetic Phonics is an evidence-based approach to teaching reading and writing that explicitly teaches children the relationships between sounds (phonemes) and the letters or groups of letters (graphemes) that represent them. It is the step to fluent word recognition with the ultimate goal being the automatic and effortless reading of all words. By repeated blending, segmenting and manipulation of words, pupils get to know the grapheme phoneme correspondences (GPCs), and once this happens, they should be encouraged to read them straight off in reading text, rather than continuing to sound and blend them aloud because they feel that this is what is required.

The Stages of Phonics teaching
The journey of Phonics begins in Nursery with Phase 1 Phonics. Here children are introduced to a variety of sounds which helps develop phonological awareness, which is a crucial skill prior to formal reading.  In Reception, children begin Phase 2 Phonics, where they are taught how to read through learning the relationship between letters and sounds. Most children in Reception will complete Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4 of the Phonics Programme. When children move to Year One, most of the children will begin Phase 5 and continue until they sit the Phonics Screening check in the Summer Term of Year One.  

Early Reading
At Marner, our early reading ties in closely with our phonics programme and employs the use of an extensive library of decodable books. Children are given decodable books that coordinate with the sounds that they learn in their phonics lessons. This enables children to reinforce their knowledge from school and helps them become independent readers. Furthermore, the children also visit the school library where they choose an appropriate book of their choice to read for pleasure.