1. What is Phonics?
*Children in Reception to Year 2 have a 20 minute daily phonics lesson.
*They are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to hear and read the whole word.
There are around 40 different sounds.

2. We teach phonics in six phases, which children should have completed by the end of year 2

3. • Oral blending and segmenting
Phase 1
Children explore and experiment with sounds, differentiate between sounds and become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration (from birth to the end of Nursery)
This phase continues throughout their Primary Education
SEVEN ASPECTS –
• Environmental sound
• Instrumental sounds
• Body percussion
• Rhythm and rhyme
• Alliteration
• Voice sounds
• Oral blending and segmenting

4. Phase 2 To introduce grapheme/phoneme (letter shape/sound)
correspondence (beginning of Reception)
Children know that words are constructed from
Phonemes (sounds) and that those sounds are represented by graphemes (letters).
They begin to put them together to read and spell CVC words.

5. Jolly Phonics
We use Jolly Phonics to introduce the sounds. Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it.
As a child becomes more confident, the actions are no
longer necessary.  
Children should learn each letter by its sound before learning letter names.
The letters are not introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters.
The letters b and d are introduced in different groups to avoid confusion.

6. Phase 3
Children learn one grapheme (letter or group of letters) for each of the 44 phonemes (sounds) in order to read and spell simple
regular words. (Reception)
Children link sounds to letters, naming and sounding
the letters of the alphabet. They hear and say
sounds in the order they occur in the word and
read simple words by blending the phonemes from
left to right. They recognise common digraphs
(e.g. th) and read some high frequency words

8. Phase 4 To teach children to read and spell words
containing adjacent consonants (end of
Reception)
Children will be able to blend and segment adjacent
consonants in words and apply this skill when
reading and spelling.
Children will move from CVC words (pot, sheep) to
CVCC words (pots) and CCVC words (spot) and
then CCVCC words (spots)

9. Phase 5 Teaching children to recognise and use alternative ways of
pronouncing the graphemes and spelling the phonemes
already taught (Year One)
Children will use alternative ways of pronouncing the
graphemes (e.g. the ‘c’ in coat and city).
Recognise an increasing number of high frequency words
automatically. Knowledge and skills of phonics will be the
prime approach to reading and spelling

10. Phase 6 Teaching children to develop their skill and
automaticity in reading and spelling, creating
ever increasing capacity to attend to reading
for meaning. (Year Two)
Applying phonic knowledge to recognise and spell
an increasing number of complex words. Read an
increasing number of high and medium frequency
words independently and automatically

11. Year 1 Phonics Test
*Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the statutory phonics screening check in June.
*The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during phonics lessons and it will be done with the class teacher.
*The focus of the check is to ensure that all children can read by the end of year 2. The year 1 screening (mid point) will provide evidence to help teachers plan for year 2.
It is not a reading test!

12. What will the children do?
*The check will take 4 to 9 minutes to complete;
*They will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together. e.g. d-o-g – dog
*The check will consist of 40 words and non-words;
*Children will be told if the word is a real or ‘alien’ word, with a corresponding alien image.

13. Examples of words

14. How will it be administered?
*Teachers will conduct all of the screening checks with the children. The children are familiar with this routine.
*The children will complete the check one to one in a quiet area of the school.
*We are not permitted to indicate to the children at the time whether they have correctly sounded out and / or blended the word.

15. And the results...?
*The children will be scored against a national standard (determined by DfE)
*We will inform you of the results during the summer term.
*If your child’s score falls below the national standard they will be supported and will complete the screening in year 2.

16. How can you help?
Encourage your child to use their knowledge of sounds to work out the words when reading and writing.
Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow the children should say this as c-ow and not c-o-w
Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound night the children should say this as n-igh-t and not n-i-g-h-t which does not sound like night.
Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant in between. Use to be known as the magic e! spine i_e home – o_e cube – u_e

17. How can you help? Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. They can choose phase 3, 4, or 5 * Buried Treasure * Poop deck Pirates * Dragons’ den

18. How can you help?
REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only way you become a good reader. Continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:
*Sound out the words and blend the sounds together.
*re-read to check it makes sense, and use pictures for clues.
* Ask questions about the book.
* And most importantly ENJOY READING!