The process of identifying sounds within words e.g. segmenting train into t-r-ai-n.

Understanding which letters are used to represent the sounds they can hear e.g. igh in night.

The process of blending sounds together to read words e.g. f-ar-m-er.

What is phonics?

Children are grouped according to their phonic level.

Daily lessons are interactive and fun!

There are opportunities to apply what is taught in the discreet lesson throughout the rest of the work we do.

How is phonics taught in school?

We use a document called Letters and Sounds to assess each individual child’s phonic level.

There are 6 phases that children move through starting in nursery and usually completing in Year 2.

We continually assess children’s progress and move them onto the next phase when they are ready.

Phonic phases

Phase 1 comprises of seven aspects:

Environment sounds

Instrumental sounds

Body percussion

Rhythm and Rhyme

Alliteration

Voice sounds

Oral blending and segmenting

Phase 1- Nursery

By the end of phase 2 children should be able to read and spell simple CV and CVC words that use the phase 2 letters and sounds .

Children will learn to read and spell tricky words: the, to, I, no, go.

Five sets of letters are introduced- one set per week.

Phase 2 – Year R

Set 1: s, a, t, p Set 2: i, n, m, d Set 3: g, o, c, k Set 4: ck, e, u, r Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

To help children learn the sound each letter makes we use a scheme called Jolly Phonics. Each letter is taught with a picture and an action. When children are writing they use their sound mat to find the picture and letter that represents the sound they can hear in a word. Children need to be secure with oral blending and segmentation. Children start reading and writing simple sentences that use VC and CVC words and the tricky words- the, to, I, no, go.

Children are taught another 25 graphemes.

Children continue to blend and segment words for reading and spelling.

Children will then use this knowledge to blend and segment 2 syllable words.

Phase 3 – Year R and Year 1

Set 6: j, v, w, x

Set 7: y, z, zz, qu

Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng

Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

At this stage we encourage phonically plausible spellings of words e.g. kight, reed.

Children learn to read and spell new tricky words-

he, she, me, be, we, was, you, they, all, are, my, her.

By Phase 4 children are able to represent each of 42 phonemes by a grapheme. Children will be able to blend and segment CVC words for reading and spelling.

Phase 4 is consolidation of children’s knowledge. Children are encouraged to practice blending for reading and segmenting for spelling of adjacent consonants e.g. b-r-ow-n, f-r-igh-t, p-r-i-n-t-er

Children learn to read and spell new tricky words- said, have,

like, so, do, some, come, were, there, little, one, when, out, what.

Phase 4 – Year 1

Children entering Phase Five will already be able to read and spell words with adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and flask. They will also be able to read and spell some polysyllabic words.

In Phase Five, children will learn more graphemes and phonemes. For example, they already know ai as in rain, but now they will be introduced to ay as in day and a-e as in make.

Alternative pronunciations for graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. ea in tea, head and break.

Children learn to read and spell new tricky words- oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked, could, would, should.

Phase 5 – Year 1

New graphemes for reading and spelling:

ay day oy boy wh when

a-e make ou out ir girl

ph photo e-e these ie tie

ue blue ew new i-e like

ea eat aw saw oe toe

au Paul o-e home u-e rule

Common alternative pronunciations:

i- fin, find ea- eat, bread

ow- cow, blow ou- out, shoulder, could,

c- cat, cent you.

y- yes, by, very g- got, giant

o- hot, cold er- farmer, her

ie- tie, field u- but, put (south)

ch- chin, school, chef a- hat, what

By the end of Phase Five children should:

■ give the sound when shown any grapheme that has been taught;

■ for any given sound, write the common graphemes;

■ apply phonic knowledge and skill as the prime approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable;

■ read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words;

■ read automatically all the words in the list of 100 high-frequency words;

■ accurately spell most of the words in the list of 100 high-frequency words;

■ form each letter correctly.

In June all Year One children will be expected to undertake a phonics check.

The aim is to check that a child is making progress in phonics.

If a child has not reached the expected standard we will ensure that additional support is given to help your child progress in year 2.

The Year 1 phonics screening check

Children are asked to read 40 words using their phonic knowledge to blend the sounds.

Some of the words are real and others are made up or pseudo words.

The words use graphemes taught in phases 2, 3, and 5.

Some of the words will have more than 1 syllable.

Daily reading!

Help your child to remember the phase 3 and phase 5 graphemes and to identify them in words when reading.

Use games available online to practise reading real and pseudo words (see website list).

Have fun!

How can you help your child to pass the screening check?

Children will by now be able to read many familiar words automatically. When they come across unfamiliar words they will in many cases be able to decode them quickly and quietly using their well-developed sounding and blending skills. With more complex unfamiliar words they will often be able to decode them by sounding them out.

In Phase Six the main aim is for children to become more fluent readers and more accurate spellers.

Phase 6 – Year 2

www.letters-and-sounds.com

www.jollylearning

www.teachyourmonstertoread.com

www.phonicsplay.co.uk

www.topmarks.co.uk

www.ictgames.com

Website list

Children are taught to read specific words in each phonic phase. Some of these words are decodable (children can recognise the digraphs and blend the sounds together) but others are tricky and need to be remembered.

Initially children learn the decodable words by blending the sounds together but the end goal is for children to read the words through recognition. For this to happen they need lots of opportunities to practise reading the words quickly.

High frequency words

Phase 2

a an as at if in

is it of off on can

dad had back and get big

him his not got up mum

but put has let did

into the to I no go

Phase 3

will that this then them with

see for now down look too her

he she we me be was

you they all are my

Phase 4

went It’s from children just help

said have like so do some

come were there little one when

out what

Phase 5

don’t old I’m by time house

about your day made came make

here saw very put oh their

people Mr Mrs looked called

asked could