Yattendon C of E Aided Primary School

We use ‘Letters and Sounds’ (a programme developed as a result of the ‘Independent Review of the teaching of early reading’) to support children’s phonological development. This is a six-phase systematic, synthetic phonics programme designed to help children become fluent readers.

The aim of phonics teaching is to secure phonic knowledge and skills so children can become independent readers and writers.
Reading and writing are like a code; phonics is teaching the child to crack the code.
Phonics teaches children the skills of blending for reading and segmenting for spelling.
Children are taught the correspondences between sounds (phonemes) in spoken language and letters (graphemes) in written language. These correspondences help the children to read and spell words.

How do we teach phonics at Yattendon?

Daily phonics sessions that last 15-20 minutes .
Children are taught in small differentiated groups according to their needs and stage of development.
Sessions include practical activities, games and opportunities for reading, writing and spelling
Children have the chance to apply skills throughout the day.

What do the children learn in each phase?

Phase 1 (pre school)	From three onwards children are taught to distinguish between sounds and become familiar with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration This is ongoing throughout the other phases
Phase 2 (foundation stage)	Taught the first 19 sounds and how to write them. Simple word building games to practice segmenting and blending.
Phase 3 (foundation stage)	Introduction of another 25 sounds and how to write them. Learn to read and spell tricky words.
Phase 4 (foundation stage/year 1)	Practise reading and writing longer words containing the sounds they have learned in phases two and three.
Phase 5 (Year 1)	Taught alternative pronunciations and alternative spellings eg hat, acorn, was, fast and picture ch.
Phase 6 (Year 1/2)	Develop the ability to recognise and spell an increasing number of complex words. Learn spelling rules and patterns eg prefixes,suffixes, plurals etc .

Phonics technical vocabulary for parents.pdf

Phonics