Phonics
The Power of Reading.
At Two Bridges Academy, we are passionate about helping every child become a confident, successful reader. We achieve this through high-quality, focused phonics teaching alongside a rich, whole language approach that inspires a love of reading. Our phonics curriculum provides a consistent and systematic framework across the school, giving all pupils the essential skills they need to read fluently. Just as importantly, we aim to nurture a lifelong enjoyment of books and storytelling, helping children discover the joy and power of reading.
What is Phonics?
Phonics is a method used to help children learn to read and write by connecting the sounds they hear in speech to the letters they see in writing.
Children are taught to listen carefully to the different sounds in words and to recognise how these sounds match up with letters or groups of letters. For example, the /k/ sound can be written as c, k, ck, or ch (like in school).
By learning phonics, children can:
- Blend individual sounds together to read words — like turning the sounds t, a, and p into the word tap.
- Segment words into separate sounds to help with spelling — like taking the word pats and splitting it into p-a-t-s.
Once children know the sounds for letters like t, p, a, and s, they can start to read and spell simple words such as tap, pat, sat, and pats.
Phonics gives children the confidence and skills to read new words on their own, setting them up for success in reading and writing!
Phonics at Two Bridges Academy.
Phonics teaches children to decode words by identifying the sounds that letters and letter combinations make. We follow the Twinkl Phonics programme – a fully DfE-validated, systematic synthetic phonics scheme designed to build strong, confident readers.
Regular Phonics lessons form part of our Communication, Literacy & Language curriculum. The Twinkl Phonics approach combines rigorous progression with engaging learning materials. At Two Bridges Academy, we believe that children learn best when they are enjoying their learning and that this comes from a mix of bright, fun and engaging lesson resources within a clear and systematic approach that builds on children’s skills daily.
As part of our wider SSP provision, there are also follow-up activities that the children can complete independently, in pairs or in groups that relate to the day’s learning. In addition, we use actions to help the children remember phonemes; this kinaesthetic, visual and auditory approach helps the children to retain the phonemes and supports children with SEND.
Decodable reading books are also provided, matched to the children’s phonic level through the use of Rhino Readers, We use both individual and guided reading to teach reading alongside phonics. We also use a mix of eBooks and physical books.
Please click here to read the Twinkl Phonics and Rhino Readers Parent Leaflet