At Cumnor School we believe reading unlocks the whole curriculum, and as such, place emphasis on robust and rapid synthetic phonics teaching in Reception and Year 1.
We follow the Sounds-Write scheme in Reception and Year 1 and plan to extend this to Year 2 in September 2023.
Each child in these classes receives a phonic matched book, based on their current learning to provide every opportunity, at home and school, to build fluency in phonic knowledge and skills. 
We have chosen the Sounds-Write scheme as it is high fidelity, with evidence based research underpinning the approach. It’s simple delivery methods and minimal resource requirements make it accessible for staff, reduce cognitive demand for pupils and focus on the phonics teaching at hand.
Children in KS2 who need it, receive targeted phonics teaching intervention and plenty of opportunity to practise putting their phonic skills into practice until automaticity when reading is developed.
See the speaking and listening, reading and writing curriculum pages to find out more about English teaching at Cumnor school.
Anna Pearson, English Co-ordinator