Phonics
We use Essential Letters and Sounds, which provides a systematic and consistent approach to the teaching of reading and writing. Phonics is the study of sounds and is a way of teaching children to read and write. It is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds and understand the link between the sound (phoneme) and the way it is written (grapheme).
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Here are some videos to help with pronunciation of ‘pure’ sounds.
Children throughout Reception and Key Stage 1 take part in a daily phonics session. These focus on developing reading, writing and speaking and listening skills. The Essential Letters and Sounds programme is divided into six phases, with each phase building on the skills and knowledge of previous learning. Children are also taught to read and spell ‘harder to read words’ – words with spellings that are unusual. These include the words ‘to’, ‘was’, ‘said’ and ‘the’. ‘Harder to read’ words are ones that we can’t sound out– so these words just need to be remembered. The phonic reading books that children bring home are closely matched to the sequence of teaching.
Phonics Screening Check
What is the Phonics Screening Check?
The Phonics Screening Check is a quick and easy check of your child’s phonics knowledge. It helps the school confirm whether your child has made the expected progress. It is administered when children are in Year 1 (the month of June).
What are ‘non/pseudo-words’?
The check will contain a mix of real words and ‘non-words’ or ‘pseudo-words’ (or ‘nonsense/alien words’). Children will be told before the check that there will be non-words that he or she will not have seen before. Many children will be familiar with this because many schools already use ‘non-words’ when they teach phonics. Non-words are important to include because words such as ‘vap’ or ‘jound’ are new to all children. Children cannot read the non-words by using their memory or vocabulary; they have to use their decoding skills.
After the check
The school will tell you about your child’s progress in phonics and how he or she has done in the screening check in the last half-term of Year 1.
If your child has found the check difficult, your child’s school should also tell you what support they have put in place to help him or her improve. You might like to ask how you can support your child to take the next step in reading.
Children who have not met the standard in Year 1 will retake the check in Year 2. All children are individuals and develop at different rates. The screening check ensures that teachers understand which children need extra help with phonic decoding.
As well as Phonics it is important that children learn a sight vocabulary of words that appear frequently in reading, we call these Harder to Read and Spell words or HRS words.