English – Phonics, Reading & Writing

Subject Leader

Kelly Forster & Zoe Puxley (Phonics)
Sean Tubb (Reading & Writing)

Subject Policy

Subject Document

English Progression Document (2025-2026)

Phonics

At Oak Tree Primary School, we believe Phonics and Spelling are essential skills that allow our pupils to communicate their understanding in all curriculum subjects. For pupils to develop into effective and confident readers and spellers, they need to develop and use a range of reading and spelling strategies. For this to be achieved, phonics is taught actively and explicitly with the understanding that the greatest impact is achieved when children are encouraged to apply their skills to a range of meaningful contexts.

The systematic teaching of phonics is fundamental. Throughout their time at Oak Tree Primary School, children will experience high quality, discrete synthetic phonics teaching. This will be tailored to the individual needs of the pupil and be both engaging and dynamic.

Here at Oak Tree we follow the systematic approach laid out in the Song of Sounds scheme (Introduced September 2021) providing pupils with an exciting and multi sensory approach to phonics. Song of Sounds is a fun and exciting program, where children learn the phonemes for their stage of development to the tune of ‘skip to my lou my darling’. It is a kinaesthetic approach involving song, adults in role and practical games. Pupils at Oak Tree Primary School really enjoy phonics sessions and our approach is consistent from EYFS, through Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2.

Reading & Writing

At Oak Tree Primary School we are committed to achieving excellent standards in written communication. We teach a broad, balanced and creative English curriculum, designed to motivate, inspire and challenge our children to achieve their full potential.

We begin all writing units with a creative hook, exciting the children and activating their prior knowledge. We then share with our children a high quality text (often linked to our Theme Learning), exemplifying the type of writing we are learning about. Speaking and listening is at the heart of our writing curriculum, and we draw upon aspects of Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing approach – we believe that children should be able to orally rehearse what they are going to write before they write it.

We always break learning down into small steps, building up to a final written piece. Grammar, spelling and punctuation are taught in context, carefully woven into the writing curriculum. We always ensure we give our children a real purpose and audience for their writing – this may be written, spoken, performed, filmed or even blogged.