Phonics

Phonics

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Phonics

At All Saints, we follow the Letters and Sounds Programme for phonics. Letters and Sounds is a phonic resource published by the Department of Education and Skills. It aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. The children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 take part in daily phonics sessions which are fun and lively, involving lots of speaking, listening and games. The focus is on children’s active participation. They learn to use their phonic knowledge for reading and writing activities and in their independent activities.

Letters and Sounds is divided into six phases, with each phase building upon previous learning.

Phase 1 (FS1 / FS2) - This phase concentrates on developing children’s speaking and listening skills. They will begin to develop their oral blending and segmenting skills.

Phase 2 (FS2) - During this phase the children will learn 19 letters of the alphabet and one phoneme (sound) for each. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:

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

They will learn how to blend phonemes together to read words and simple captions. They will also learn how to segment words into their separate phonemes to spell words.

Tricky words are words that cannot be ‘sounded-out’ but simply need to be learnt. They don’t fit into the typical spelling patterns. Examples of these words are attached to each phase. In order to read simple sentences, it is necessary for children to know some words that have unusual or untaught spellings. It should be noted that, when teaching these words, it is important to always start with sounds already known in the word, then focus on the 'tricky' part.

Tricky words introduced in Phase 2:

the	to	I
go	into	no

Phase 3 (FS2) - During this phase the children will be taught the remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. 25 new graphemes such as ch, oo and th etc. representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters.

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

The children will read captions, sentences and questions containing the new 25 graphemes taught during this phase.

Tricky words introduced in Phase 3:

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

Phase 4 (FS2) - No new grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught in this phase. By Phase 4 children will be able to represent each of 42 phonemes with a grapheme. Children will learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump. They will also be able to read two syllable words that are simple. They will be able to read all the tricky words learnt so far and will be able to spell some of them.

This phase consolidates all the children have learnt in the previous phases.

Tricky words introduced in Phase 4:

said	so	have	like	what	do
some	come	were	there	little	one
when	out

Phase 5 (Year 1) – During this phase the children will be taught new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these graphemes and graphemes they already know. They will begin to learn to choose the appropriate grapheme when spelling. The children will be automatically decoding a large number of words for reading by this point.

Tricky words introduced in Phase 5:

oh	their	people	Mr	Mrs	looked
called	asked

By the end of Phase 5 the children should be able to read automatically (sight read) all the words in the list of 100 high-frequency words and accurately spell most of the words in the list.

100 high - frequency words

the	that	not	look	put
and	with	then	don’t	could
a	all	were	come	house
to	we	go	will	old
said	can	little	into	too
in	are	as	back	by
he	up	no	from	day
I	had	mum	children	made
of	my	one	him	time
it	her	them	Mr	I’m
was	what	do	get	if
you	there	me	just	help
they	out	down	now	Mrs
on	this	dad	came	called
she	have	big	oh	here
is	went	when	about	off
for	be	it’s	got	ask
at	like	see	their	saw
his	some	looked	people	make
but	so	very	your	an

Phase 6 (Year 2) – In phase 6 children will be reading longer and less familiar texts independently and fluently. It is important that at this point children are now reading to learn and are reading for fun. It is also important that comprehension strategies are developed so that children clarify meaning, ask and answer questions about the texts they are reading and summarise what they have read. In spelling, children are introduced to the adding of prefixes and suffixes and how to spell longer words. Throughout the phase children are encouraged to develop strategies for learning spellings.

How is Phonics assessed?

The children are assessed every day (informally) from our observations of children reading independently, for example in guided reading sessions or in the book corner, or from their writing, either in guided writing sessions or in independent activities.
Evidence is gathered cumulatively during the daily discrete phonics sessions, particularly during the ‘revisit and review’ and ‘apply’ sections.
We record which phase the children are working in securely each half term.

The children also have a phonics screening check in Year One.

Key stage 1 Year 1 phonics screening check
‘The phonics screening check is designed to confirm whether pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. It will identify pupils who need extra help to improve their decoding skills.’

All pupils in Year One will complete the phonics check.
The check consists of 20 real words and 20 pseudo-words (nonsense words) that the child reads aloud to the teacher.
It will be administered by their class teacher on a 1:1 basis.
The check will take place in the Summer Term.
Year Two pupils who did not achieve the pass mark in Year One will complete the check so that we can track children until they are able to decode.
Parents will be told what mark their child scored out of 40 in their end of year school report.

Resources

In Foundation Stage 2 phonics is taught using the resource Jolly Phonics. Jolly Phonics teaches the sounds through a story, song and action. This is supplemented through use of additional songs, games and activities.

Interactive Whiteboard phonic programmes are also used to engage and enhance children’s learning. Phonics activities are frequently linked to the current topic being studied in each class.

How can you support your child at home?

Share books and comics with your child - Read their favourites over and over again!
Listen to your child read their home / school reader daily.
Join the library and explore the world of books.
Listen to audio books.
Let children see you as a reader!
Practise reading and writing the sounds they have been taught and encourage them to apply these to everyday activities, e.g. writing shopping lists, notes, cards etc.