1. Reading Meeting
Wednesday 18th October 2017
Year 1

2. Welcome What is Phonics? What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?
How is reading taught in Year 1?
How you as parents and carers can support your child’s reading at home.

3. What is phonics?
Phonics teaching involves teaching children the sounds of letters (not just the names).
Children are taught to read by breaking down (decoding) words into their separate sounds or ‘phonemes’.
They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word.

4. What is phonics?
Children are taught to (decode) identify sounds (phonemes) in words eg c-a-t
Blend phonemes into words for reading eg sh-i-p = ship
Recognise the graphemes (letters) used to represent each phoneme eg sh/ ch/ igh
Segment words into phonemes for spelling e.g night = n-igh-t
There are around 44 different sounds (phonemes).

5. Useful definitions PHONEME - smallest unit of sound
GRAPHEME - written representation of the sound
DIGRAPH - two letters making one sound e.g ch
TRIGRAPH - three letters making one sound e.g igh
SPLIT DIGRAPH - where two letters are not adjacent e.g a-e as in made

6. How it works ..
Phonics is taught from Nursery and continues through to Year 2.
There are 6 phases within the ‘Letters and Sounds’ scheme of work.
In Year 1 the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme is implemented daily.
The children are streamed across the year group into 3 groups based upon the children’s individual needs.
The children have a 20mins phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to use the strategies they have learnt to read and write in other lessons.

7. What is phonics?

8. What is phonics?
In addition to learning the different sounds ‘phonemes’ the children are also taught to read and write a variety of different ‘common exception words’ which cannot be decoded using phonics. For example ‘said’

9. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
The Phonics Screening check is a Government initiative, it is a national assessment that is carried out in all schools. Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the phonics screening check during the same week in June.
The children will be asked to decode 40 words. 20 real words and 20 pseudo words (nonsense words)
However as part of your child’s daily phonics lessons their teacher will also continually assess their learning.

10. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during their phonics lessons.
Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together. eg d-o-g - dog

11. Decoding
There are many skills involved in reading and decoding (through phonics) is just one of them.
However, decoding comes FIRST AND FOREMOST. This is the reason why children are being tested.
Nonsense words are included in the screening check because the check is about DECODING.
Your child will also be asked to decode real words all of the words will be fully decodable if your child knows their sounds.

12. Phonics Screening Check

13. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
The screening will take place during a one week period in the summer term (date to be confirmed). The children cannot retake the test at any other time that year so it is very important your child is in school during this week.
The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.

14. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
The children will complete the check one at a time in a quiet area of the school.
The screening will only take 5-10mins with each child.
If your child does not meet the expected standard they will re-take the check in year 2. We do not discuss the results with the children. If a child needs to re-take the check in year 2 they will be given phonics support
Parents will be notified shortly after the test.

15. Reading The children participate in a daily Guided Reading session.
During this session the children take part in specific reading activities independently or with an adult.

16. Guided Reading Sessions
Your child will read with their teacher every week as part of a group.
During each session there will be a specific focus for example a phonic or comprehension focus.

17. Home-Reading books
The children are given two home-reading books to take home. Please ensure that your child brings both their books and diary into school every day.
The children are given a specific day when their books will be changed however if your child finishes their book earlier they can bring it in and have it changed. Please read the books more than once to support fluency and comprehension.
Please ensure that you sign your child’s diary to show us that they have finished their book.

18. What can you do at home to help?
Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing. Focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns.
Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow
Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound night
Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant inbetween. Use to be known as the magic e! spine - i_e

19. What can you do to help at home?
Encourage your child to use their sound mat when writing.
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’
uriedTreasure2.html

20. What can you do to help at home?
REMEMBER: The ultimate goal is for your child to become a confident and fluent reader.
Please continue to read with your child for about 10mins each night and encourage them to:
Sound out
Re-read to check it makes sense.
Use pictures for clues.
Ask questions about the book.
And most importantly ENJOY READING!