Letters and
Sounds at
A Whole School Approach
Who?
Years 1-6
What?
Phonics following the Letters and Sounds Programme
When?
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:10-9:30
Where?
Sarah /
Iris
Chrissy
Liz
Kay
Jonathan
Trisha
Dawn
Lions
Nurture
Room
Panthers
Group
Room
Leopards
Conservatory
Hall
What do the children learn from
specific phonics teaching?

grapheme/phoneme (letter/sound) correspondences
(the alphabetic principle) to apply the highly important
skill of blending phonemes, in order, all through a word
to read it

to apply the skills of segmenting words into their
constituent phonemes to spell

blending and segmenting are reversible processes.
We need to all make sure that we
are:

Following a consistent, clearly defined, incremental
sequence;

Planning phonic sessions that are fun, pacey, colourful
and multisensory.

Assessing frequently so that our sessions match the
children’s needs.
The Letters and Sounds Document
•
Is a six-phase teaching programme.
•
Gives us activities and games we can play with the
children to develop blending and segmenting
•
Suggests the timetable in which we teach the
phonemes and tricky
•
However does not provide a more detailed, daily plan
of discrete teaching.
Start to think in
Phases!
Progression
Intended
Year Group
Phonic Content
Tricky Words
Phase 2
F
(6 weeks)
19 phonemes:
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
• VC
• CVC
• continue oral blending and segmenting
• 2 syllable words
Read:
The, to I no go into
Phase 3
F
(12 weeks)
set 6: j v w x
set 7: y z/zz qu
• (i) ch sh th ng
• (ii) ai ee igh oa oo
• (iii) ar or ur oi ear air ure er
ow
• CVC complex
• letter names
• 2 syllable words
Read:
he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are
Spell:
the, to, I, no, go, into
Phase 4
F
(6 weeks)
• adjacent consonants
• 2 / 3 syllable words
Read:
some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out,
like, little, what
Spell:
he, she, we, me, be, was, my,
you, her, they, all, are
Phase 5
Y1
• wh ph
• split digraph ‘e’
• ay ea ie oe ew ue
au aw ou oy ir ey
• alternative spellings of
phonemes
• read and spell fully
decodable high frequency
words on 100 list
Read:
oh, their, people, Mr., Mrs.,
looked, called, asked, could
(The pupil should be able to
read irregular high frequency
words on 100 list and spell
most of these)
• apply phonic skills
• past tense
• suffixes
• longer words
• spelling rules
Read and spell irregular high
frequency words on further
200 list, as needed
Phase 6 Y2
The order of phases

Phase 1 has been taught through the children’s
foundation year (preschool)
Phase 2
my suggestion is that all TAs start at this point.
It will cover letters that they already know but put a
bigger emphasis on the blending and segmenting.
Phase 4 (a) adjacent consonants and Phase 2 vowels
e.g. gran
Phase 3
Phase 4 (b)
adjacent consonants and Phase 3 vowels
e.g. grain
Phase 5
Starting Point (discuss)

My suggestion is to all start at phase 2. It should take 5
weeks, however, might be too basic for Year 3 onwards?

YOU WILL FIND that many of the children will need
very little teaching of the sounds that the phoneme
make (grapheme/phoneme correspondence GPC) but
lots of practical teaching and games the develop the
segmenting and blending.

What do people think? Phase 2 or 4a?
Different sections of a phonics
session
Introduction:
Objectives and criteria for success (oral)
Revisit and Review:
Practise previously learned letters
Practise oral blending and segmentation
Teach:
Teach a new letter
Teach blending and/or segmentation with letters
Teach one or two ‘tricky’ words
Practise:
Practise reading and/or spelling words with the new letter
Apply:
Read or write a caption (with the teacher) using one or more
high frequency words and words containing the new letter
Managing resources
TAs will have time on a Monday morning
to collect and organise resources for the
week.
 Laptops – Enough for all groups to have a
set.
 Detailed list of locations given out!

Our Phonics Boxes
Each TA will have their own phonics box
Inside each box there will be:

A set of plans for Phase 2-4

A outline of resources needed for each game and where they can be found.

Assessment sheets

Daily record sheets

Magnetic boards

Set of board pens

Magnetic letters

Alphabet chart (phase 3)

Phases 2 and 3 phonemes (flashcards)

All decodable and tricky words for Phases 2-4

Yes / no questions and captions / sentences for Phases 2-4

What’s in the Box? resources for Phase 4
Websites for Printable Resources

www.letters-and-sounds.com

www.twinkl.co.uk

www.sparklebox.co.uk

www.handwritingworksheets.com (but r, s, b?)

www.communication4all.co.uk – cursive phoneme
sheets
Websites for interactive games
•
www.phonicsplay.co.uk
•
www.letters-and-sounds.com
•
www.sentenceplay.co.uk

Do we have fans? Some of the planning
refers to phonic fans either we make
some up (I have the master) or use pieces
of paper with the letters on instead.
(Doesn’t have to be glamorous)
My Planning
Phase 2:
•
Usually takes six weeks of five days
•
I have crammed it into 5 weeks of 3 days.
•
The ‘teaching sessions’ focus on the first 23
phonemes. This may not be needed, however , could
be used as a recap to ensure the children know
exactly how to pronounce the sound (h)
Phase 4a:
•
‘Slipped it in’ before phase 3
•
Only two week plan
•
Based on reading and spelling of adjacent consonants
CVCC words (help)
CCVC words (frog)
CCVCC words (stand) look at DVD
•
These are only using phase 2 graphemes.
•
This made up ‘4a’ will not include tricky words.
Phase 3

Alphabet song introduced. Children need to know and
be able to differentiate between the alphabet names and
the actual sounds that the letters make in order to
learn digraphs

I have included one laptop session each week in the
‘practice’ section

Tried to make the activities varied
•
Weeks 1-11 are introducing all of the digraphs and
trigraphs
•
Weeks 12 onwards are consolidation, revisiting,
games to practice
•
I have occasionally referred to the L&S document
rather than type the methods of a game in the
planning, if I have forgotten to put the reference, it
will be in the document
Phase 4b
Exactly same format as Phase 4a but with words
containing phase 3 phonemes.
How to follow the plans

Annotate your own plans accordingly.

If you run out of time, note it down and adjust plans
(can you be creative and squeeze a bit into to revisit the
next day?)

The planning is flexible in terms of the ‘practice’ section
of each session. So long as the ‘teach’ sections are
taught in the planned order, the games can be swapped
around – just check the words that you are using have
been covered.
Assessment

Assessment sheets for each Phase – found on staff
drive

These are to see where children are exactly

Suggestion: maybe assess 1:1 when other are on the
laptops?

Keep in a folder in the box.
Daily Record
Please fill out a daily log at the end of the phonic session.
Keep it simple!
Jot down:
•
If anyone needed extra support
•
What they had trouble with
•
Maybe a tick or smiley face for those who understood
the session?
•
No need to write down coverage as this is outlined in
the planning.
•
At the end of week, staple to the back of planning and
keep in a folder in the box.
Reviewing
Nothing is set in stone!
However, it will be difficult to slot new children into the
groups and also for children to ‘come in’ to a group due to
our very progressive planning.
Therefore I suggest that at the end of a term, TAs review
the work with their teacher and discuss any issues.