Phonics
Phonics at Lozells
Phonics is proven to be the most effective method of teaching children to learn to read as it simplifies the English language down into just 44 sounds. Children therefore 'decode' words by breaking them down into its sounds rather than having to memorise 1,000's of words individually.
At Lozells, we teach our children using a systematic synthetic phonics programme called ‘Letters and Sounds’. Letters and Sounds aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and efficient programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven. Phonics is taught 4 times a week, for 30mins through EYFS to KS1.
Letters and Sounds - Phonics phases
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Phase |
Phonic Knowledge and Skills |
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Phase One Nursery/Reception |
Activities are divided into seven aspects: 1. Environmental sounds, 2. Instrumental sounds 3. Body sounds 4. Rhythm and rhyme 5. Alliteration 6. Voice sounds 7. Oral blending and segmenting. |
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Phase Two Reception |
Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Blending sounds together to make words. Segmenting words into their separate sounds. Beginning to read simple captions. Set 1: s a t p Set 2: i n m d Set 3: g o c k Set 4: ck e u r Set 5: h b f, ff l, ll ss They will also learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words: I, the, to, go, no, into |
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Phase Three Reception |
The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters. Reading captions, sentences and questions. On completion of this phase, children will have learnt the "simple code", i.e. one grapheme for each phoneme in the English language. Set 7: y, z,zz qu Consonant diagraphs: ch, sh, th, ng Vowel Diagraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er They will also learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words: he, she, we, be, me, you, are, her, was, all, they, my |
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Phase Four Reception |
No new grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught in this phase. Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump They will also learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words: said, have, like, so, do, some, some, little, one, were, there, what, when, out |
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Phase Five Throughout Year 1 |
Now we move on to the "complex code". Children learn more graphemes for the phonemes which they already know, plus different ways of pronouncing the graphemes they already know. New graphemes: ay (day) ou (out) ie (tie) ea (east) oy (boy) ir (girl) ue (blue) aw (saw) wh (when) ph (photo) ew (new) oe (toe) au (Paul) Split digraphs: a-e (make) e-e (these) i-e (like) o-e (home) u-e (rule) New pronunciations for known graphemes: i (fin, find), o (hot, cold), c (cat, cent), g (got, giant), u (but, put (in south of England), ow (cow, blow), ie (tie, field), ea (eat, bread), er (farmer, her), a (hat, what), y (yes, by, very), ch (chin, school, chef), ou (out, shoulder, could, you) They will also learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words: oh, Mrs, people, there, called, Mr, looked, asked, could |
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Phase Six Throughout Year 2 and beyond |
· Consolidation of all of above · Children apply skills and knowledge learned above to become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers. · Past tense words · Adding prefixes and suffixes, doubling and dropping letters |
Phonics Terminology
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Phoneme A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. Feel/watch how your mouth changes when you say a word, every time your mouth moves/changes shape you are saying a new phoneme, e.g. b-r-i-ck There are 44 phonemes in the English language |
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Grapheme Graphemes represent how a phoneme is spelt. Each grapheme is a unit of sound regardless of how many letters there are. e.g. The word b-r-igh-t is made up of 4 phonemes; the igh phoneme is represented by 3 letters but only makes one phoneme. A grapheme can represent more than one phoneme e.g. C = cat and city |
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Diagraph Two letters, which makes 1 phoneme. e.g. duck A consonant diagraph contains 2 consonants e.g. sh ck th ll A vowel diagraph contains at least one vowel e.g. ai ee ar oy |
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Split Diagraph A diagraph in which the two letters are not adjacent e.g. make - a-e is a unit of sound (diagraph)- it is being ‘split’ by the constant k. |
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Trigraph Three letters, which make 1 phoneme. e.g. light |
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Oral blending Hearing a series of spoken phonemes and merging them together to make a spoken word without corresponding to any graphemes e.g. teacher says “b-u-s” children say “bus” |
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Blending (links to reading) Recognising the letter sounds in a written word and merging them together in the order they are written to pronounce the word. e.g. c-u-p = cup |
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Segmenting (links to writing) Identifying the individual phonemes in a spoken word and writing them down to form a word. |
Phonics Screening Check
In year 1, children will sit a national Phonics Screening where the children have to read 20 real words and 20 ‘alien’ (pseudo) words. This is conducted in a very child-friendly way by the class teachers. At every parents evening you will be informed of your child’s progress in Phonics and at the end of Year 1 the school report will inform you if they have passed or not. If your child does not pass in Year 1 they will be given additional support throughout Year 2 to enable them to pass the next year. We hold a parents workshop on the Phonics Screening check during Spring term where you will gain further information on this.
Click on links provided below to access past Phonics screening check papers.
Useful Websites and Apps
Websites
| www.letters-and-sounds.com | Information and resources on the ‘Letters and Sounds’ programme | ||
| www.phonicsplay.co.uk | A site packed with interactive phonics games and resources to help children to learn to read. | ||
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Oxford Owl – have over 100 free e-books for children aged 3-11 years old | ||
| Oxford Owl videos to help parents understand phonics and tips for reading | |||
| www.readwithphonics.com | Fun games and resources for parents to help their children with phonics (£7.99 one off fee) | ||
| Useful website to help you with pronunciation of sounds used in Phonics | |||
| Fun games for children to play to help them with their phonics sounds |
Apps
| Apple App Link | Android App Link | Meet The Alphablocks! | |
| Apple App Link | Android App Link | Read with Phonics Games | |
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PAID APP |
Apple App Link | Android App Link | Teach Your Monster to Read |
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PAID APP |
Apple App Link | Monster Phonics |