1. Phonics and spelling KS1

2. Phonics

3. What is phonics?
Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word. As well as using phonics other words known as tricky words cannot be sounded out and are learnt using the look and say method.
Children have a 20 mins phonics lesson each day and they are encouraged to use these strategies to read and write in other lessons.
There are around 40 different sounds.

5. Why are the children being screened?
Every Year 1 child in the country will be taking the phonics screening check in the same week in June.
The aim of the check is to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of Year 2.
This check will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what the children need to learn in Year 2 and if they do not pass they get another opportunity in Year 2.

6. What will the children be expected to do?
The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during phonics lessons.
Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together. Eg d-o-g - dog
The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know and therefore the children will be asked to read made up ‘nonsense’ words. Eg: framp

7. Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
It consists of 40 words of which 20 are made up and 20 are real words.
The test assesses the child’s ability to segment words into sounds and then blend them together.
There is no time limit for this but we can stop the test if the child is finding it difficult.
We are told the pass rate at a later date. (For the last 3 years it has been 32.)
Those children who do not reach the pass rate have to redo the test at the end of Year 2.

8. When will the screening take place?
The screening will take place throughout the week beginning Monday 11th June. The children cannot retake the test at any other time 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.

9. Who will complete the check?
The children will complete the check one at a time in a quiet area of the school.
I will conduct all of the screening checks with the children.
The screening will only take 5-10 mins with each child.

10. How can you help?
Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing, focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns.
Eg:
Digraph – 2 letters making one sound cow
Trigraphs – 3 letters making one sound night
Split digraphs – 2 vowels with a consonant in-between. Used to be known as the ‘magic e’! spine - i_e

11. How can you help? http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/BuriedTreasure2.html
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online. The children particularly like ‘Buried Treasure’

12. Spelling

13. Spelling in Year 2
In Year 2 Children revisit spelling patterns taught in Year 1 from Phase 5 to spell more than to read.
Then they move onto Phase 6 spelling patterns.
As well as words that follow a pattern there are Common exception words (tricky words that you can’t spell phonetically and need to learn.)

15. Spelling in Year 2
Children still have phonic spelling sessions every day for 20 minutes in year 2
They learn Homophones: words that sound the same like
Hear and here
Sea and see
They learn contractions using apostrophes like couldn’t wouldn’t shouldn’t
They learn spelling rules for adding suffixes like ing, ed, ness, ful
They learn words with different spelling patterns like words that end in
le, el, al
They learn spelling patterns for plurals, like foxes, flies

16. Spelling in Year 2 Look Write Cover Check
Every week the children bring home spellings to learn in a small red book using the method:
Look
Write
Cover
Check

17. 2016 KS1 Spelling Test Hannah ran _______________ than Lee.
There was a _______________ of children at the party.
The musician gave concerts all over the _______________.

19. How you can help at home
Practice the spellings each week using look, write, cover, check method
Practice common exception words
When your child writes pick one or two words for correction especially ones they should know and talk about the pattern.
Regular reading with your child and pointing out spelling patterns will help too.