Phonics

Our Phonics Leader is Mrs Wild

Our CLL Leader is Mrs Marshall 

Hendal Primary School has embarked upon a Rapid Improvement Journey with Phonics and with the way in which we teach early reading.

In September 2019 we introduced the “Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters Programme.” Every member of teaching staff throughout the whole school participated in a two days of continuous professional development delivered by Debbie Hepplewhite, the author of the scheme.

The Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters Programme is a rigorous Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme that goes hand in hand with our school ethos, “Belong Aspire Achieve.” The familiar characters, storylines and illustrations of Biff, Chip and Kipper promote in our children a sense of belonging. The rigorous structure of Phonics Lessons, through the use of routine and repetition to Revisit, Review, Teach, Practise, Apply and Consolidate, further complements our children’s learning styles and is embedding phonics skills for early reading across the school.

The programme teaches all of the sounds of the English Language and an extremely comprehensive range of graphemes from the alphabetic code. The sounds are introduced systematically throughout the programme allowing children to build up their code knowledge and phonic skills ensuring a smooth progression with their reading.

For a more detailed explanation of how we teach Floppy’s Phonics across school please click on the link below – 

Floppys Presentation for parents 2025 -2026

At Hendal we Aspire for all pupils to transition from Year 1 having achieved age related expectations or above in Reading. We Aspire for all children to become successful readers who enjoy reading and sharing books. Parental feedback reflects the impact of our teaching on their children’s progress and achievements.

“The new approach to reading has made my son more excited to read.” (Parent)

“Since using Floppy’s Phonics my child can now sound out independently.” (Parent)

The Impact was seen in our 2020 targets. We had 85% of children on track to pass the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. This is a 12% increase on 2019 results. Our Phonics data has continued to improve and our most recent National Phonics Screening pass was 86% in June 2024.

Children tell us that they enjoy their Phonics lessons and that they are learning and remembering new sounds daily. This in turn means children are increasing the amount of words they can read and are reading more challenging words with confidence. This evidence supports our intention for all children to be proficient readers by the end of Key Stage One. “Phonics helps us to read new words.” (Child)

The programme offers comprehensive multisensory resources and is fully integrated with our decodable Floppy’s Phonics Fiction and Non-fiction reading books which we use in EYFS and Keys Stages 1 (and when needed in Key Stage 2.)

We have worked in partnership with the Jerry Clay English HUB and are part of the Intensive Support Initiative. Our External Reading Leader joined us each half term in an intensive one day visit to challenge, coach and develop our methods and delivery. We believe this approach enables all our staff to be fully apprised of refinements ensuring consistency and maintaining “Best Practice.”

Mrs Wild our Phonics Leader, works alongside staff to team teach and deliver weekly reading meetings to constantly improve our teaching of Phonics. We believe that fluent reading is developed through early language acquisition, inspiring a love of reading in our children, and through application of a secure knowledge of Phonics.

We work rigorously, as a whole team to challenge ourselves on the best ways to teach Phonics through Floppy’s Sounds and Letters Phonics Programme. New staff all receive Floppy’s Phonics training prior to working with us to ensure consistency is maintained.

How to support at home

Please read with your child everyday 10 minutes will make a big difference. If your child needs help with a word you can remind them to use our ‘Reading Routine’

In Floppy’s Phonics we use our READING ROUTINE 

Please come in and speak to your child’s class teacher or Mrs Wild if you feel your child needs any extra support. We want ALL children at Hendal to LOVE reading and to become confident, fluent readers.

Phonics Screening Check 2024

This will take place June 2025. Please ensure your child is in school during this week so that they can take part in the national phonics check.

The test contains 40 words. Some of these words are real words and some are ‘non-words’ or ‘nonsense words’. Children will be prepared for the fact that some of the words will not be real words and these words are identifiable during the test by having a small image of an alien next to them. These ‘non-words’ are important because all children will need to use their decoding skills to read them as they will have not been learnt by sight.

The test will take around 10 minutes per child, although children are allowed to work at their own pace and there is no time limit. If your child is struggling, the teacher can stop the check. Each child will sit one-to-one with an adult and will be asked to read the 40 words out loud.

How Can I Help?

Join us for our Phonics Meetings for all Parents/Carers (held in EYFS and Year 1 classes each September) this will help you to see exactly how we teach Phonics to your child. Teachers will model a lesson and ask you to join in with your child. 

“The session really helped me to see how my child is taught to read and has helped me with supporting my son at home now” – Parent of Year 1 child September 2024

Parents play an enormous part in fostering a love of books and an enjoyment of reading in their children.

• Play lots of listening games at home with your child.

• Read with your child as often as possible.

• When you listen to your child read, allow them time to attempt to decode unfamiliar words using the strategies they have learnt in school, before jumping in to help them. If they continue to struggle you may support them by pointing out the sounds (not the letters) in a word. Remind your child to use their Reading Routine (Spot the digraph/trigraph, say the sounds, read the word)

• When you read to your child, model how you would attempt an unfamiliar word, discuss the meanings of the words that you and your child are reading and remember that it is very important to pronounce the words correctly.

 • Discuss the meanings of the words that your child is reading. • Always remember you can talk to your child’s teacher. They will be able to inform you of where your child might need extra support and what you can do to help them.

We will send home weekly practise sheets in your child’s homework book for you to share. If you would like any further support please come in and speak to your child’s class teacher or Mrs Wild in Year 1.