Phonics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 Walsham-le-Willows Primary School

We follow the Letters and Sounds programme from Reception until the end of Year 2.

Letters and Sounds is split into Phases 1 – 6. Phase 1 should covered in pre-school. Children begin Phase 2 in Early Years. Phase 2 introduces one set of sounds a week e.g. Week 1: s a t p Week 2: i n m d Week 3: g o c k Each sound is called a phoneme. A phoneme is one unit of sound. We also look at the letters – each written one is called a grapheme. For each phoneme we teach the children a song from Jolly Phonics.

Once the children have learned the letters in the set, they begin blending. Example in Week 1: tap, pat, sat Each phoneme is a sound button, children often draw sound buttons under the words. Example: tap

Phase 3 Letters and Sounds is also covered in EYFS and introduces children to digraphs and trigraphs. A digraph is two letters together which make one sound e.g. sh, ai, ee. A trigraph is three letters together which make one sound e.g. igh, ear, air. These digraphs and trigraphs also have Jolly Phonics songs. Children also use sound buttons for digraphs and trigraphs. Example: ship

Review: e.g. flashcards, quickread, quickwrite Our phonics lessons throughout EYFS and KS1 are split into Review, Teach, Practise and Apply. Review: e.g. flashcards, quickread, quickwrite Teach: the objective for the lesson e.g. a new sound Practise: e.g. writing, game on Phonics Play Apply: e.g. reading or writing sentences/questions

At the start of Year 1, children are at the Phase 3/4 stage. Children are phonically assessed on Phase 2 phonemes, Phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs and High Frequency Words at the start of and throughout Year 1. Children often spend time revisiting Phase 3 work in Phonics sessions at the beginning of Year 1.

CVCC: tent, bend, wind, pond CCVC: frog, trip, clap, plum Phase 4 covers longer, but still decodable, words which also contain Phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs. We refer to these as CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CCCVC and CCCVCC words! Examples: CVCC: tent, bend, wind, pond CCVC: frog, trip, clap, plum CCVCC: twist, plump, slept, grunt, shrink CCCVC: street, spring CCCVCC: strand

Phase 5 introduces alternate spellings for the digraphs learned in Phase 3. Examples: Phase 3 Phase 5 ai ay, ey, a_e pain, rain hay, they, make igh ie, i_e light, sigh pie, shine ow ou cow, town cloud, found

But it can sometimes get quite complicated! We start to try and show the children rules for when to use the different sounds – if there are any! Example oa: road, toad, loaf oe: toe, doe But it can sometimes get quite complicated!

Children also learn about split digraphs in Phase 5. This is when words have an ‘e’ at the end, which then means we pronounce the previous vowel as its letter name, not its sound. Examples: hat hate mad made pin pine not note

Nationally, children are expected to be at the end of Phase 5 by the end of Year 1. This is when they sit the recently introduced Phonics Screening Test. Comprised of real and nonsense words, it tests the children’s decoding, sounding out and blending together. The pass mark is 32 out of 40 but this may change. Words are made up of all sounds children have learned from Phase 2 to Phase 5 and the test gets progressively harder, ending with two-syllable words e.g. portrait, starling.

Just like with Phase 3 however, children do enter Year 2 not being fully secure on Phase 5, so will often begin the year refreshing this Phase. Children then start Phase 6 in Year 2. This is the last Phase in Letters and Sounds. By the time they reach SATs in the summer term, the expectation is that they will be able to read 90 words per minute.

Phase 6 At the start of Phase Six of Letters and Sounds, children will have already learnt the most frequently occurring grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs) in the English language. They will 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, using their well-developed sounding and blending skills. In Phase Six the main aim is for children to become more fluent readers and more accurate spellers.

The children are introduced to some more vocabulary to help their understanding. Suffix - a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. e.g. –ing, -ed, -er, est, -ful, -ly, -s and –es Prefix- a letter or group of letters attached to the beginning of a word that partly indicates its meaning. e.g. –un, -dis, -mis, -anti and -micro Syllable- a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants. e.g. happy…….hap-py has two syllables sensible…….sen-si-ble has three syllables

Compound word- when two words are joined to form a new word. e. g Compound word- when two words are joined to form a new word. e.g. newspaper Apostrophes by omission- an apostrophe to show a missing letter (or letters) e.g. I am I’m She has She’s Apostrophes showing possession Irregular spellings of tricky words Spellings are given each week in Year 1 and Year 2, based on based on patterns using a new scheme we ae currently trilalling.

Ways to help at home Encourage a love of reading using a variety of texts – books both fiction and non fiction, magazines, signs and print when you are out and about. Play games such as I spy, letter detectives, snap Spend a little time each day hearing your child read. Look for familiar phonemes, digraphs, trigraphs and patterns in words. Let us know so we can celebrate their achievements. If your child becomes stuck or frustrated encourage them to use their skills to decode a word. Does it sound right? Does it look right?

Any questions? We have prepared some resources for you which you may find helpful when hearing your child read. Thank you for coming!