THE Partnership Phonics Programme
(based on Letters and Sounds)
What to expect
The Partnership Phonics Programme is designed for daily teaching sessions in a clearly defined, incremental sequence from early in Reception. Every lesson is planned and follows a clear structure: revise, hear, read, write, and apply. The programme is fully mapped to Bug Club Phonics books* and with further reference to Big Cat Phonics books ensuring absolute fidelity between this teaching programme and decodable reading books.
Throughout the programme formative and summative assessment is built in to monitor progress within each phase to inform next steps and identify children at risk of falling behind. Intervention/catch-up lessons are provided, along with additional workbooks, to support these identified children.
*The Bug Club Phonics books referred to are taken from the DfE validated Bug Club Phonics Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme produced by Pearson Education Limited.
The core digital subscription is priced at a flat fee of £300 per year (with a discount for small schools).
Core online subscription
Progression
The progression in THE Partnership Phonics Programme is structured to follow Phase 2 to 5 of Letters and Sounds. The detailed progression for the programme shows the GPCs and tricky words that are taught on a week-by-week basis. You can see a summary of progression, covering what is learned by children on a term-by-term basis.
Lesson Plans
Every single lesson for this programme has been planned, from early in Reception through to the end of the programme in Year 1. Every lesson follows a clear structure: revise, hear, read, write, apply. Words, phrases, sentences, and texts are used within each lesson. These are clearly mapped out across the programme.
Lesson planning for each lesson in each phase, from early in reception through to the end of year 1, is provided to ensure continuity and fidelity to the programme. Space is provided for on-going formative assessment to ensure each lesson meets learning needs. Each phase has a lesson handbook which includes pedagogy guidance for that phase. Resources referred to in the planning are provided in separate resource handbook. Each phase has its own resource handbook. Additional supporting workbooks have been created to support interventions and catch-up for identified learners.
Phase Lesson Plans Handbooks, Resource Books and Additional Supporting Workbooks are available to download from the online platform, along with a programme Overview Handbook.
Supporting Resources
All the tools you will need to bring your lessons to life (sound mats, flashcards, wall friezes and reading sheets) are available to download and print from the online platform.
Access to a full bank of online lessons to use in the event of school closures via the online platform.
Assessment
"Close and regular assessment of children as they learn to read is vital if teaching is to match their capacity to learn and if difficulties are to be identified when they first arise and overcome."
- Ofsted (2010) - 'Reading by six: How the best schools do it'
Throughout the programme formative and summative assessment is built in to monitor progress within each phase to inform next steps within the programme.
During the apply section of lessons teachers can make decisions about whether to engage in whole class reading, paired reading or individual reading. Some children may benefit from learning as a group, others will benefit from working with a peer, whereas others may be confident to read independently. This will change for children as they move through the programme and teachers should adapt their choices to meet children’s learning needs.
Reading focus lessons and dictation focus lessons are included throughout the programme. These lessons provide opportunities for retrieval practice. They are designed for children to work independently and will provide assessment information for teachers as children move through each set and phase of the programme.
Both apply reading sentences and reading focus sheets can be reused, along with lesson resources and the additional resource workbooks, with children who have been identified as requiring extra practice.
At the end of the phase, each child will complete an assessment sheet one-to-one, with an adult. The assessment involves reading GPCs, words (decodable and tricky words), and sentences; and spelling words and writing a dictated sentence or sentences.
All assessment materials are available on the online platform.
Supporting the lowest 20%
This programme includes additional intervention / catch-up guidance to support children who fall behind. These include oral blending and segment / blending lessons, word reading lessons and spelling lessons. Additional Supporting Workbooks have been created to support small group, 1:1 teaching and learning.
Training
To back up the main training, which is booked separately, pre-recorded videos are available on the online platform, including ‘how-to’ videos.
CPD Training
Whole school training is offered to ensure every teacher and TA in school is confident in the teaching and learning of early reading. To support this training, pre-recorded videos are available on the online platform, including ‘how-to’ videos for staff to refer to and refresh their understanding of the programme.
Training is an essential part of implementing a successful SSP programme. Whole school training is provided either online or face-to-face. Schools who undertake school training are then supported during the year with additional twilight training sessions. In addition to this, or schools who undertake the training, pre-recorded training videos are included on the online platform.
The training is run by THE Partnership. Training is booked directly with THE Partnership team.
Fully decodable reading books
As children move through the phonics programme, they will be reading materials closely matched to their phonics knowledge*, both in school and at home. In this way, children will be encouraged to use their phonics skills and knowledge as their primary reading strategy. As children find that they can decode words quickly and independently, they will read more and more so that the number of words they can read automatically builds up.
It is expected that children will read decodable books from the previously taught set of GPCs whilst learning the new set of GPCs. This will ensure that children are only being expected to read books containing knowledge they know and can apply. Lesson planning and overviews clearly indicate this.
Children will be encouraged to re-read books to support growing confidence and working towards growing fluency. Children will also be encouraged to read aloud as well as silently for themselves. As pupils continue to progress through the phonics programme many pupils will begin reading longer texts with more complex words independently and with increasing fluency. This process culminates in a shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Children then move on to independently reading both for pleasure and for information.
Comprehension skills need to be taught to enable children to make sense of what they read, building upon what they already know and grow the desire to read more. Reading grows children’s vocabulary as they encounter words they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. Children who read widely and frequently also have more secure general knowledge.
*The Bug Club Phonics books referred to are taken from the DfE validated Bug Club Phonics Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme produced by Pearson Education Limited.
Support for parents / carers
Materials to support parents / carers are available on the online learning platform.
FAQs
Choosing a systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) programme is an important school decision. Here we answer some FAQs, so you can decide if THE Partnership Phonics Programme is right for you.
If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, please don’t hesitate to get in contact.
It is an SSP that will support your pupils to read, spell and write fluently. This programme has been created by practising teachers and leaders who teach phonics daily.
Each lesson is built around direct teaching sessions with extensive teacher-child interaction. Throughout each session, children are expected to actively engage in the learning.
The significant difference is the THE Partnership Phonics Programme is a full SSP that contains all the lesson planning, resources and guidance required by the DfE.
The programme is designed for daily teaching sessions in a clearly defined, incremental sequence. This sequence enables children to read and spell many words early on. It progresses from simple to more complex phonic knowledge and skills, cumulatively covering all the major GPCs (grapheme-phoneme correspondences) in English. Alongside learning GPCs, tricky words are mapped to each set, in line with the decodable reading books. This progression allows children to be able to practise blending rapidly and to apply their phonics skills.
This SSP programme includes everything a school needs to deliver high quality phonics lessons and interventions to ensure every child is a reader. All resources ensure fidelity to the programme and support all staff, from ECTs to the very experienced, to deliver high quality phonics provision.
Resources included:
- A full phonics programme, with term-by-term progression with weekly coverage.
- Daily lesson plans, from the start to the end of the programme, including pedagogy guidance for every phase.
- A walkthrough of a sample lesson for each phase.
- Videos to exemplify lesson structure and pedagogy, and to support training.
- Flashcards, sound mats and friezes.
- Mnemonic image for all GPCs in Phases 2 and 3.
- GPC guidance for pronunciation and letter formation.
- Assessment, formative and assessment, and a tracker to record progress.
- Interventions for children at risk of falling behind.
- A comprehensive training package that includes whole school training days (online or face-to-face), and access to training videos.
- Each phase is accompanied by its own dedicated handbooks.
- Clear guidance of linked decodable books matched to both phase and set within the programme.
- Resources to support parents.
- A full bank of online lessons to use in the event of school closures.
| THE Partnership Phonics Programme | 2007 Letters and Sounds framework | |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 Progression (GPCs and Tricky Words) | ||
| Meets the requirements of the NC for KS1 | ||
| Daily lesson plans from phase 2 – 5 | ||
| Reading guidance | ||
| GPC pronunciation and letter formation guidance | ||
| Flashcards, sound mats and friezes | ||
| Reading and dictation focus materials | ||
| Assessment materials | ||
| Mnemonic image for each of the 44 sounds | ||
| Online (remote) learning videos | ||
| Full training package including individualised support for schools (additional request) | ||
| Glossary |
The programme is fully mapped to Bug Club Phonics books* with further reference to Big Cat Phonics books ensuring absolute fidelity between teaching programme and decodable reading books. Click here to view chart mapping GPCs, tricky words, and books.
*The Bug Club Phonics books referred to are taken from the DfE validated Bug Club Phonics Systematic Synthetic Phonics Programme produced by Pearson Education Limited.
Whole-school training is important to ensure that all members of staff understand the programme and deliver it with confidence and fidelity. THE Partnership Phonics Programme is accompanied by a full training programme. This includes:
- Whole-school training
- Termly network meetings
- Development days.
We offer a cost-effective subscription of £300 per year. Training costs are priced in addition to this.