10 tips for supporting learners with SEND when teaching phonics - download our free guidance document

Most young learners naturally and rapidly develop literacy skills when taught using a high-quality systematic synthetic phonics programme such as Reading Planet’s Rocket Phonics.

The nature of a systematic phonics curriculum is that it builds cumulatively, in carefully constructed steps, to equip learners with the precise knowledge and skills they need to read and write in the English language. Close monitoring and regular assessment points ensure that learners at risk of falling behind are swiftly identified, allowing for timely interventions to help them keep pace with their peers.

However, teaching young learners to read and write in English is not easy, even with the support of a high-quality programme like Rocket Phonics. English is a complex language and learners come to the classroom with a wide range of abilities, backgrounds and challenges. In any given classroom, there might be:

• learners with speech and language delay
• learners who have memory or processing difficulties
• learners with impaired hearing or sight
• learners with emotional or behavioural challenges.

These factors can create additional barriers to learning an already challenging subject.

Working with Rocket Phonics author, Abigail Steel, we’ve created an intervention guidance document titled When Learners Need More which can be found in our Rocket Phonics Online subscriptions. The guidance contains more information on adaptive teaching, supporting EAL learners, and a thought-process model for intervention plus much more but here are our top 10 tips for supporting learners with SEND when teaching phonics.

1. Focus on what the specific difficulty is – refer to the Systematic Synthetic Phonics Teaching Principles (knowledge of the code and the skills of blending, segmenting and handwriting), then consider the sub-skills of each principle.
2. Model the skills, but do not do the work for the learner – sometimes learners need modelled, heavily guided teaching, but other times learners need to learn by doing.
3. Use scaffolds, but only until no longer needed – reflect carefully on why the scaffold is useful, then notice the point at which it is no longer helpful and withdraw it.
4. Use multiple ways of practising the same skill without diluting or distracting from it – learners may spend a long time trying to secure a particular skill and tweaking the task to look or feel different without stepping too far, will keep their interest.
5. Keep activities simple and straightforward – unnecessary instructions or actions can detract from the intended learning.
6. Expose children to mainstream/age-appropriate content for social and academic inclusion – a learner who is still struggling with blending or segmenting skills might excel with complex alphabetic code knowledge and vocabulary knowledge.
7. Always be ambitious and open minded – learners will often surprise you with the progress they make, and we shouldn’t restrict them from advancing further than we thought they would.
8. Keep parents/guardians informed and involve them where possible – we all want the best outcomes for learners and teamwork is a great way to achieve this.
9. Get started! Don’t spend precious time talking about and planning additional strategies if there are tweaks that can be implemented straight away – what do you need to do next to take action today?
10. Review provision frequently to check it is having a positive impact and make modifications to increase effectiveness – reflect daily and weekly, then schedule check-in conversations with your SENDCo/colleagues at least half-termly.

Download your free copy of the intervention guidance document, When Learners Need More, here.