1. Phonics and Reading at Key Stage 1

2. What do you remember about learning to read? What were your experiences?

3. Letters and Sounds
Letters and Sounds is the programme of phonics which we follow in school starting with Phase 2 in Reception through to Phase 6 in Year 2 and 3. Each phase gradually builds up a child’s knowledge of all of the sounds and corresponding letters. Sometimes it is necessary to revisit phases or elements further up the school for those needing extra support.

4. Phonemes and graphemes
There are 44 phonemes (sounds) that the children learn. Sometimes there is more than one grapheme (letters which represent a sound) for a phoneme. For example the phoneme /ear/ has these graphemes ear, ere, eer, eir. Although some are more common than others the children need to learn them and we do this gradually starting with the most common.

5. Each classroom has a phoneme poster displayed along with other resources to help the children to remember the phonemes and graphemes.

6. Sounds and letter names
The sounds are used for the letters and phonemes to help when learning to read and spell, but we also teach the children the letter names and encourage the use of these from as soon as they enter school.

7. Practice and repetition are key.
A short amount of time everyday makes a difference. We practise reading the phonemes everyday. Articulation of 44 phonemes. Phoneme mats for Phase 2-5 are used daily in Classes 1 and 2 but still feature in the Key Stage 2 classes as well.

8. How do we teach Letters and Sounds?
Every morning am.
In separate year groups.
Reception work in the hall to give them space for activities which allow them to move around and take part in interactive phonic games.
Year 1 in Class 1.
Year 2 in Class 2.

9. A typical lesson Grapheme phoneme correspondence cards.
YR Learning a new sound.
Y1 and 2 Learning alternative graphemes.
Reading and writing activities with the particular sounds or grapheme including sorting and sound button activities. (Let’s have a go).
For example Phonics Play tasks, Pelmanism or flying carpets. Activities are as interactive as possible.
The new learning builds through the week alongside repetition of phonemes and graphemes from previous sessions.
In Year 2 there is a much greater emphasis on spelling rather than reading during Letters and Sounds.

10. Phonic Screening Check for Year 1 pupils.
At the end of Year 1 all pupils undergo the Phonic Screening Check. This is a check made up of real words and pseudo words containing the phonemes and graphemes which they will have learnt through phases 2-5. It is important for the children to have a solid knowledge of the phonemes to be able to achieve the pass mark. Children can retake the test in Year 2 if necessary.

11. Phonetically decodeable texts.
We have recently purchased some new texts which will be coming home with your children from next week. They will be sent home mainly with YR and Y1 but also with some Y2 children. Phonetically decodeable means the phonemes contained in the words are in line with the phonemes being learnt in school and therefore more accessible for the children. This means the children’s fluency and hence confidence increases.

12. Reception
The new books will be sent home generally in the order that the phonemes are being learnt in school, allowing the children’s knowledge of the phonemes to gradually develop. We will revisit phonemes to develop fluency and confidence and so the books may not always follow the order of the list in the reading journal.

13. Year 1
Year 1 children will also be bringing home some of the new books from this week. Please do not worry about the colour banding on the books, as with these new texts the focus is on the phonemes and graphemes in the books and the phase which they are working on in Letters and Sounds. Phase 5 is larger and encompasses lots of alternative phonemes and graphemes, which the children need to build confidence and fluency with. The Year 1 children are unlikely to follow the list in order and may bring home different colour books. Towards the end of Year 1 children will bring home a mixture of phonetically decodeable and ORT texts.

14. Year 2
As the children move into Year 2 they will bring home a mixture of some of the phonetically decodeable texts and the ORT books which we have traditionally used. They will be ready to tackle these with better confidence and phonic knowledge, following their use of the phonetically decodeable books in YR and Y1. As they progress through Year 2, they will be asked to complete short reading tasks for their home reader to further develop their understanding and both their appreciation of the writer’s intent and choices of vocabulary.

15. Reading in class
In class children will take part in a range of different reading activities from one to one reading, group reading and whole year group or class big reads. We plan different kinds of texts to extend pupils’ experience of different genres and to make comparisons between the structure and layout, style and language used. A mixture of phonetically decodeable and ORT books will be used for reading in school. As we can now access the new texts via the Active Learn Primary website we will be using some of the texts during class or group reading sessions. Children will be allocated a user name and password so that they can also access texts from home.