• PHONICS AT SCHOOL
• Taught daily
• Children grouped according to their needs
• We follow the Letters and Sounds programme.
• Split into 6 phases which span from pre-school to year 2 (and possibly year 3)
• Fast paced progressive programme.
(no longer letter of the week but children taught up to 4 graphemes in one week)

• PHONICS AT HOME
• Correct pronunciation of phonemes (n-uh) fun / funuh
• We all need to use the same vocabulary at home and at school.
• Little and often is the key. Does not have to be formal. (i.e. sharing a rhyming book or playing ‘I spy’)
• Link it to your child’s interests.

• The smallest unit of sound in a word.
• There are 44 phonemes that we teach.

The 44 phonemes
/b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /ng/
/p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ /th/ /th/ /ch/
/sh/ /zh/ /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ /ae/ /ee/ /ie/ /oe/
/ue/ /oo/ /ar/ /ur/ /au/ /er/ /ow/ /oi/ /air/ /ear/ /ure/

• Before children begin to learn the written version of phonemes (graphemes) they must be able to hear the sounds.
• In this phase children practise listening to sounds, rhyming, alliteration, clapping syllables and experimenting with voice sounds.
• Children then begin to aurally blend and segment words. This is a vitally important skill before moving onto the next phases.
• Children will revisit phase 1 work throughout their work in following stages.

• Letters representing a phoneme e.g. c ai igh

BLENDING
• Recognising the letter sounds in a written word, for example c-u-p w-i-th and merging or ‘blending’ them in the order in which they are written to pronounce the word
‘cup’
We use sound buttons underneath words to help us to read them. This is something you could try at home.

• ‘Chopping Up’ the word to spell it out
• The opposite of blending
• Use your robot voice and clap the phonemes.
• Phoneme frames to write in.
b ear d

• DIGRAPHS – 2 letters that make 1 sound ll ss zz oa ai
• TRIGRAPHS – 3 letters that make 1 sound igh ear ure

• The English language can have multiple graphemes for 1 phoneme.
• i.e. c k ck ch(choir)
The aim of phases 1-4 is to give the child one possible way of writing each of the 44 phonemes. Because of this we will not always correct a child’s writing if they have made a phonetically plausible attempt.

(We calls them naughty words)
• Words that are not phonetically decodable
• e.g. was, the, I
• Some are ‘tricky’ to start with but will become decodable once we have learned the harder phonemes
• e.g. out, there,

• Play lots of sound and listening games with your child. (i.e. I spy a c-a-t)
• Sing songs and rhymes
• Read as much as possible to and with your child.
• Encourage and praise – get them to have a ‘good guess’.
• Ask your child’s teacher if you want to know more.
All these things will help to build up connections in the brain, an enjoyment of language and confidence to try things out.

www.sparklebox.co.uk/cll/lettersandsounds/
This is great for some activities that you can do at home.

• www.parentsintouch.co.uk
• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/parents
• www.jollylearning.co.uk/
• www.focusonphonics.co.uk/
• www.syntheticphonics.com