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Phonics is a reading method that directly teaches the relationship between letters and sounds.
Phonics teaches children to read by showing them the link between letters (graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) they make. They learn to blend these sounds together to read words (decode) and break them apart to spell them (encode). Evidence shows that this method, especially Synthetic Phonics, is very effective for long-term reading and understanding.
• Children learn the sound each letter (grapheme) or group of letters makes (digraphs and trigraphs).
• They blend these sounds together to read a whole word.
• They also learn to break words apart (segment) into sounds to help them spell.
A key benefit of Synthetic Phonics is that it immediately equips a child to start reading. Once children have learnt the sounds taught through our phonics programme, they are able to apply this to read about 50% of English words because these words follow regular sound rules. For the other half of words, only a small part, usually the vowel sound, is irregular. This means that by using phonics, children still have the skills to work out the rest of the word and only need to focus on that one tricky sound. In our phonics scheme decodable words are taught as ‘green’ words and words containing more irregular sounds are called ‘red words’.
Phonics Lessons:
At our school we use FFT Success for All Phonics (a validated scheme) to teach phonics. This is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme that has been validated by the DfE. Phonics is an integral part of the curriculum across the EYFS (Reception class) and Key Stage 1 (continuing into Key Stage 2 as necessary). Lessons are taught daily to ensure that children develop the skills needed to become successful readers and writers. Children are regularly assessed and there are additional planned intervention groups for children needing extra support. Success for All Phonics comes with a selection of shared readers which we will be supplementing with closely matched books from other schemes.
Shared Reading Lessons:
We want our children to be fluent readers, so shared reading sessions are to teach children how to read (using their phonic knowledge to date) and to model fluency in reading.
It is important that children can apply their phonic skills to reading. Children have a daily reading session, based on the phonic skills they have been taught. We use fully decodable texts to give children opportunity to use their new skills. We also give children the opportunity to vocabulary, to ensure children understand what they are reading.
Please find below the Reception and Year 1 GPC mats which are used to support the children with writing words containing the GPCs.
For each letter of the alphabet the children will learn a short alliterative phrase to help them to learn how to form it correctly in their writing, e.g. for ‘c' it is 'curl around the caterpillar.’ These alliterative phrases are a great prompt to use with your child at home to support them in forming each letter of the alphabet correctly.
Alphabet Mat - Success For All letter formations
Children in Year R practise the alphabet chant daily they alternate between using the names of the letters and the sounds.
Phonics is taught not in alphabetical order, but in a carefully planned systematic sequence that introduces the most common sounds first, like /s/, /a/, /t/ and /p/. This approach allows children to quickly learn to blend these sounds together to read simple words right away, building their confidence and making the learning process engaging and fun.
Year R and 1 Scope and Sequence document
Phonics terminology is the specific vocabulary used to describe the sounds (phonemes), the letters that represent those sounds (graphemes), and the methods used to teach children how to read and spell by linking them. In FFT Success For All children are taught phonics terminology from the start of their reading journey in Year R.
Here are some of the most fundamental terms:
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a word. For example, the word cat has three phonemes: /k/, /a/, /t/.
Grapheme: The letter or group of letters that represents a phoneme. It can be a single letter (like c) or a group of letters (like sh in ship or igh in light).
Blending: The skill of pushing individual sounds (phonemes) together in order to read a word. For example, blending /b/-/u/-/g/ to say "bug."
Segmenting: The skill of breaking a word down into its individual sounds (phonemes) in order to spell it. For example, breaking "dog" into /d/-/o/-/g/.
Digraph: Two letters that make one sound. Examples include sh, ch, th, and ee.
Trigraph: Three letters that make one sound. Examples include igh, ure and air
Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence (GPC) is the understanding that a specific grapheme (a letter or group of letters) represents a specific phoneme (a single sound). GPC is knowing what sound a letter or combination of letters makes when you see it on the page. Mastering GPC is essential because it allows children to decode (read) unfamiliar words by sounding them out and encode (spell) words by listening for the sounds.
It is a statutory requirement for children in Year One to be undertake a phonics screening check. This contains real and pseudo words (sometimes known as nonsense words or alien words). It is designed to see if children have reached a standard in phonics before Year Two. The assessment is administered by class teachers in a set week in June. The children will do practice screenings throughout the academic year so the set up will be familiar to them. The standard mark is unknown each year. It is only published once the Local Authority has scores from all schools.
An extract from a phonics screening check:
Parent Information Workshops
Click here for the Year R Phonics PowerPoint for Parents
Click here for the Year 1 Phonics PowerPoint for Parents
Visit FFT Success For All Parent Portal for growing resources to help your child with phonics and early reading! You'll find the Shared Readers your child uses in school, along with essential Tips for Home Reading advice. We'll be adding more films and resources soon.
Link to FFT Parent Portal
Link to Success For All parent guide
Click the link to hear the proper pronunciation of the Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences in the FFT Success for All Phonics.
Link to FFT Success for All - How to pronounce our GPCs