Reignhead Primary School Phonics in Year 1

What is Phonics? In 2014/15 a new national curriculum framework was introduced by the government for Years 1, 3, 4 and 5. However, Years 2 and 6 (due to statutory testing) continued to study the previous curriculum for one further year. In 2015/16 children in all years at Key Stage 1 and 2 are expected to now study the new national curriculum. KS1 (Year 2) and KS2 SATs (Year 6) will reflect the new curriculum for the first time this year. Phonics is a way of teaching children to read. They are taught how to: • Recognise the sounds that each individual letter make. We talk about ‘short sounds’, for example ‘mmm’ rather than ‘m-uh’. • Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make e.g. sh and oo. • Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word. Children can then use this knowledge to segment sounds they hear and blend sounds they see to read new words.

Sound Chart In 2014/15 a new national curriculum framework was introduced by the government for Years 1, 3, 4 and 5. However, Years 2 and 6 (due to statutory testing) continued to study the previous curriculum for one further year. In 2015/16 children in all years at Key Stage 1 and 2 are expected to now study the new national curriculum. KS1 (Year 2) and KS2 SATs (Year 6) will reflect the new curriculum for the first time this year.

Read, Write, Inc At Reignhead, we use a scheme called Read, Write Inc – this is used in many schools across the country. Children have a daily phonics and reading lesson which lasts for approximately 30 minutes – every single child reads aloud to an adult every single day! Children of a similar ability are grouped together. ‘Old’ national curriculum levels (e.g. Level 3, 4, 5) have now been abolished, as set out in the government guidelines. From 2016, test scores will be reported as ‘scaled scores’. This means it is very difficult to compare the assessment of a previous year with the current year. Your child will still be taught with the highest expectations and cover all required elements of the curriculum, similar to previous years. The new curriculum is more rigorous and sets high expectations which all schools have had to work hard to meet since the beginning of last year.

What is the Phonics Screening Check? This check will further inform us of your child’s phonic knowledge. The results of the check will be shared with parents/carers in the end of year report. It comprises of a list of 40 words that children read one-to-one with a teacher. The list is a combination of both real and made up, non-words which rely purely on using phonics to decode. The non-words are words that have been made up and will be shown with a picture of an alien. In previous years, the pass mark has been 32. At Reignhead, 81% of children passed the phonics screening check last year. The Reading Test consists of two separate papers: Paper 1 – Contains a selection of texts totalling between 400 and 700 words with questions about the text. Paper 2 – Contains a reading booklet of a selection of passages totalling 800 to 1100 words. Children will write their answers to questions about the passage in a separate booklet. Each paper is worth 50% of the marks and should take approximately 30 minutes to complete, although the children are not being assessed at working at speed so will not be strictly timed. The texts will cover a range of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Questions are designed to assess the comprehension and understanding of a child’s reading. Some questions are multiple choice or selected response, others require short answers and some require an extended response or explanation.

Helping Your Child With Phonics Phonics works best when children are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and books. Parents play a very important part in helping with this. Some simple steps to help your child learn to read through phonics: • With all books, encourage your child to ‘Fred talk’ unfamiliar words and then blend the sounds together from left to right. Remember, many common words can’t be easily read using phonics – e.g. ‘who’ or ‘ball’ •We will also be able to suggest books with the right level of phonics for your child. These books are often called ‘decodable readers’ because the story is written with words made up of the letters your child has learnt. Your child will be able to work out new words from their letters and sounds, rather than just guessing. • Try to make time to read with your child every day. Grandparents and older brother or sisters can help, too. Encourage your child to blend the sounds all the way through a word. As a school we expect children to read at home for 10 minutes a day. • Word games like ‘I-spy’ can also be an enjoyable way of teaching children about sounds and letters. You can also encourage your child to read words from your shopping list or road signs to practise phonics.  

www.phonicsplay.co.uk (Obb and Bob, Dragon’s Den and Buried Treasure) Useful Websites www.phonicsplay.co.uk (Obb and Bob, Dragon’s Den and Buried Treasure) http://www.ictgames.com/literacy.html (Falling Phonics, Dinosaur Eggs) First and foremost, support and reassure your child that there is nothing to worry about and that they should always just try their best. Praise and encourage! Ensure your child has the best possible attendance at school. Support your child with any homework tasks. Reading, spelling and arithmetic (e.g. times tables) are always good to practise. Talk to your child about what they have learnt at school and what book(s) they are reading (the character, the plot, their opinion). Make sure your child has a good sleep and healthy breakfast every morning!