Phonics
Phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing by which children are systematically taught the relationships between the sounds in our language and the letters used to represent those sounds. Once children have been taught which sounds are linked to which letters, they are able to crack the code and can confidently have a go at reading and writing anything.
High-quality phonic teaching secures the crucial skills of word recognition that, once mastered, enable children to read fluently and automatically. Once children are fluent readers, they are able to concentrate on the meaning of the text. The ‘simple view of reading’ shows that both dimensions are necessary. However, the balance between word recognition and language comprehension shifts as children acquire secure and automatic decoding skills and progress from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ for purpose and pleasure. The ultimate goal of learning to read is comprehension.
Children have daily phonics sessions in school and learn different letter-sound correspondence in different phases. There are a few ‘tricky’ words introduced at each phase. These are words which are common and useful in early reading and writing, but children will not be able to ‘decode’ them following the phonics rules taught up to that point.
Children in reception and Year 1 have daily phonics sessions using ‘Letters and Sounds’ which is a systematic approach used for teaching children to read. The phonic approach encourages children to directly link letters (graphemes) to sounds (phonemes).
Phonics sessions are taught daily in Reception and Year 1 for a minimum 20 minutes and the vast majority of children are confident readers by the end of Key Stage 1. Daily phonics sessions are started as soon as children start school. Regular, rigorous assessments are carried out so that early intervention needs can be identified and implemented.
We currently follow the DfE Letters and Sounds programme and use teacher made resources and ‘Phonics Play’ as the primary teaching tool. Sessions are structured around the Revisit/Review-Teach-Practise-Apply approach.and are pacey and engaging to suit the needs of all learners.
- No Nonsense spelling sessions ( following the progression set out in Letters and Sounds) are taught in Year 2 as a 20 minute session enabling most children to be confident spellers in the required KS1 spelling patterns by the end of KS1. In each session.
Details of the letter-sound correspondences that children learn in each phase at St Martin's can be found below.
Reading books in Key Stage 1
While children are learning phonics we issue decodable books that relate onluy to the graphemes that they have been taught and that they recognise. This ensures a secure start to every child's reading journey and helps children progress from decoding words to reading fluently . The Harpoer Collins Big Cat decodable books have been expertly alighned aligned to Letters and Sounds. They introduce the graphemes in a step by step progression that reflects the sequence of sounds taught in school.Most decodable books will also contain high frequency and tricky words, again, with the expectation that these had been taught within phonics lessons. As children progress, the books that they read will contain more complex words with the full range of phonemes that they have learned.
