1. Phonics Information Evening
Monday 19th September 2016

2. Phonics Teaching at SMCS
We follow the ‘Letters and Sound’ programme.
There are daily Phonics sessions within Reception and KS1 classes.
Sessions last for no longer than 20 minutes.
The session comprises of 4 parts: Revisit/Review, Teach, Practise, Apply.

3. Blending – for Reading
Children will be taught to blend, or ‘push’ sounds together.
It is important that children learn to do this accurately from an early age.
This skill becomes harder when attempting to decode longer words so other strategies will be taught as they progress through the phases.

4. Segmenting – for Spelling
Segmenting is a skill used in spelling. In order to spell the word cat, it is necessary to segment the word into its constituent sounds; c-a-t.
Children often understand segmenting as ‘chopping’ or ‘splitting’ a word.
Before writing a word young children need time to think about it, say the word several times, segment the word and then write it.

5. High Frequency Words (HFW)
Tricky words
Tricky words are words that cannot be ‘sounded-out’ but need to be learned by heart. They don’t fit into the usual spelling patterns. In order to read simple sentences, it is necessary for children to know some words that have unusual or untaught spellings.
High Frequency Words (HFW)
High frequency (common) are words that recur frequently in much of the written material young children read and that they need when they write.

6. Phonemes
The smallest unit of sound. There are approximately 44 phonemes in English. Phonemes can be put together to make words.
cat much hair

7. Graphemes c k ck f ff ai ay a_e s ss
A grapheme is a way of writing down a phoneme. Graphemes can be made up of 1 to 4 letters depending on the word. Many phonemes (sounds) have multiple graphemes, for example:
c k ck f ff
ai ay a_e s ss

8. Digraphs and Trigraphs
A digraph is a grapheme that contains 2 letters, such as sh, ch, ai, ow.
A trigraph is a grapheme that contains 3 letters such as air, ear, igh.
There are also split vowel digraphs:
a_e e_e i_e o_e u_e
These are two vowel letters that are split within words but make one sound together:
make these mine bone tube

9. Phonics Screening Check
Week commencing Monday 12th June 2017