• Children are taught to read in small guided
groups once a week.
• In addition they have numerous
opportunities to practise their skills for
example, reading books with the whole
class or on an individual basis.
 Phonics is taught daily and used as a key
strategy to teach children to read.
 Children read at school all
day.
• Use the SOUND the letter makes, not the
name.
 For example, for ‘m’, say ‘mmmmm’, not
‘em’.
 For ‘s’, say ‘sssssssss’, not ‘es’.
 For ‘l’, say ‘lllllllllllll’, not ‘el’.
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Structured programme
Six phases
Fast pace, lots of consolidation
Blending for reading
Segmenting for writing
Tricky words
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Phonics – the learning of letters and sounds
Phoneme – the sound a letter makes
Grapheme – the written letter
Blending – running sounds together to make a word
Segmenting – breaking a word up into its component sounds
Tricky words – words that cannot be decoded using phonics
cvc – c = consonant (b/c/d/f), v = vowel (a/e/ee)
Digraph - a sound made with two letters eg. sh ai oi
Phonetically plausible – written phonetically that it can still be read although it is spelt
incorrectly eg. torl werk cabij
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All about sounds, musical, environmental, voice and body
Aural discrimination of sounds, including letter sounds
Blending and segmenting orally
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Learning specific letters and sounds
Reading tricky words:
I go no to the
Blending and segmenting vc and cvc words, and in captions and
sentences
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All other sounds are taught, but only one representation
Alphabet names are important to describe the sounds made by more than one
letter
More tricky words for reading
Writing I go no to the
Blending, segmenting, reading, writing words, captions and sentences
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Adjacent consonants introduced
cvcc words
t-e-n-t m-i-l-k j-u-m-p
ccvc words d-r-u-m p-l-o-p
Ccvcc words t-r-u-n-k
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The purpose of this phase is for children to
broaden their knowledge of graphemes and
phonemes for use in reading and spelling.
Children will learn new graphemes and
alternative
pronunciations for these.
Children become quicker at recognising
graphemes of more than one letter in words
and at blending the phonemes they represent.
More tricky words e.g. Could, people, looked.
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At this stage many children will be reading longer and less
familiar texts independently and with increasing fluency.
The shift from learning to read to reading to learn takes
place and children read for information and for pleasure.
As children find that they can decode words quickly and
independently, they will read
more and more so that the number of words they can read
automatically builds up.
Increasing the pace of reading is an important objective.
Children should be encouraged to read aloud
as well as silently for themselves.
Concentration on spelling rules such as past tense, plurals
(s, es, ies)
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Phonics screening check takes place at the
end of year 1.
This is a government requirement to check on
progression in phonics.
Pass or fail!
If a child does not meet the required standard
they will have to retake at the end of year 2.
(Last year 30/40 words must be read correctly
for a pass)
Using Phonics to Read and Spell
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With all books, encourage your child to ‘sound out’
unfamiliar words and then blend the sounds
together from left to right rather than looking at
the pictures to guess. Once your child has read an
unfamiliar word you can talk about what it means
and help him or her to follow the story.
Practise sounding out words such as ‘chart (ch-art), ground (g-r-ou-n-d), table (t-a-b-le), book (boo-k), station (s-t-a-ti-o-n), house (h-ou-se),
school (s-ch-oo-l),......you choose
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To become successful readers, children must understand what
they read.
They need to learn a range of comprehension strategies and
should be encouraged to reflect upon their own understanding
and learning.
Children need to be taught to go beyond literal interpretation and
recall, to explore the greater complexities of texts.
Over time they need to develop comprehension strategies:
activating prior knowledge;
clarifying meanings – with a focus on vocabulary work;
generating questions, interrogating the text;
constructing mental images during reading;
summarising.
PLEASE TAKE A HANDOUT OF USEFUL QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR
CHILD!
One of the greatest gifts that you can give to
your child is a love of reading. Research has
shown that one of the biggest indicators of
success in a child's life is whether or not they
have books in the home.
As a parent, try to focus on making reading fun
and enjoyable. There are many, many different
things that you can do. Here are just a few:
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Let your child see you reading - This can be a
newspaper, magazine, anything you like. This
is a powerful message to send to your child
so go on, put your feet up for 10 minutes and
have a read.
Read something with your child - It doesn't
need to be a book. The secret is to find
something that your child is desperate to
read - comics, magazines, football
programmes, newspapers, internet pages,
texts, e-mails, catalogues etc.
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Never underestimate that power of a book that a
child really, really wants to read, even if it is too
hard for them. If they are very keen to read a
particular tricky book then go for it and just help
them out when they need it.
Praise your child - Studies show that children
who are given specific support with their reading
make much greater progress if they are given
lots of praise than if they are given the support
alone. Try to praise your child's accuracy,
understanding and attitude.
• Listen to your child read a variety of books
regularly.
 Remember it’s also important to read TO your
child.
• Asking questions develops your child’s
understanding of the book (comprehension).
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Switch off the TV, radio, ipad, x box,
playstation, mobile phones – and really listen!
Try to make reading a regular activity with
your child – 10 minutes before you say
goodnight is a good habit to get into from an
early age.
Speaking and listening are vital skills children need to develop
in order to live successful lives in society.
 They are also key skills for children developing their ability
to read and write.
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Read, read, read.... It is the most important
investment you can make for your child.