Children begin to learn phonics in Early Years, both nursery and reception. Once children begin learning phonics, they use this to read and spell words. Children are taught to read by breaking words into separate phonemes (sounds). They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word. When spelling, children are asked to segment words into phonemes and say them in turn. For example, /d, o, g/. They write a grapheme (letter) for each phoneme to produce the written word dog. Children in reception and KS1 have a daily phonics lesson which lasts approximately 30 minutes.

The English alphabet has 26 letters. English uses combinations of letters to represent single sounds e.g. ph, ai. The English language uses approximately 44 sounds (20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds). There are 140 ways of combining letters to create the 44 sounds e.g. ay, ai, a_e, ey, eigh can all make the ai phoneme.

Children in year 1 throughout the country will be taking part in a phonics screening check during the week beginning 13th June. Children in year 2 will also take the check if they did not achieve the required result in year 1 or they have not taken the test before. The aim of the check is to ensure that all children are able to use phonics to decode to an appropriate standard. Children in year 1 who do not reach the expected standard will retake the test in year 2. Any children in year 2 who do not reach the expected standard will engage in phonic interventions in year 3 but will not be expected to retake the check.

The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know and their ability to blend phonemes to read words. Therefore, the children will be asked to read made up words. These words are shown to the children with a picture of an alien next to them. This informs the child that the word is an ‘alien’ word. This is when it is particularly important to segment and blend words (use their ‘fishy phonics’) as children often read near words as they do when reading a book.

The test contains 40 words: 20 real and 20 nonsense words. Each child will sit 1:1 and read each word to a teacher. The test will take approximately 10 minutes per child but there is no time limit.

screening-check-sample-materials-and-training-video 00:40 – 02:25

By the end of the summer term, schools will report results to parents.

Read daily. Play lots of sound and listening games with your child. Encourage and praise them. If your child is struggling to decode a word, help them by encouraging them to say each sound (not letter) in the word. Discuss the meaning of words with your child if they do not know what they have read. Make up words using phonemes to practise reading alien words to build confidence.

Useful websites: Phonics play: (there is s free section. Buried treasure is particularly good for real and pseudo words). Letters and sounds: (phase 3 – 5 is the main focus) Mr Thorne Does Phonics: Cbeebies Alphablocks: ICT games:

REMEMBER phonics is not the only strategy needed to be a fluent reader. Please continue to read with your child daily. Encourage them to: sound out re-read to check it makes sense use picture clues ask questions about a book ENJOY READING!