Phonics

 

Little Wandle phonics for parents

Phonics progression

“ Evidence shows phonics teaching is most effective when taught as part of a language-rich curriculum… Phonic decoding is the skill which underpins successful reading, but we recognise that it is not an end in itself, and that schools should be teaching other aspects of reading…We do not underestimate the importance of teaching wider reading skills.” (DFE 2011) 

Every child deserves success right from the start. We know that the sooner children learn to read, the greater their success at school. This is why we put reading at the heart of what we do.

At Hillside Primary Academy, our pupils learn to read and write effectively and creatively using Phonics.

Teaching and Learning
We teach pupils to:

• Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills.
• Read high frequency/ common expectation words on sight (action words)
• Understand what they read
• Read aloud with fluency and expression
• Write confidently, with a strong focus on vocabulary and grammar
• Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
• Acquire good handwriting

Non-negotiables

• Children will receive Phonics on a daily basis at an appropriate pace for approximately 20-25 minutes following adapted schemes.
• Phonic sessions are active
• The ‘Nelson Handwriting’ font is to be used when teaching letter formation
• Learning intention (L.I) stamps should be visible on working walls, Interactive White Boards or tables so that children are aware of their L.I for that section of learning.
• Pupils should also have daily practise in reading high frequency words/common expectation words with irregular spellings – ‘tricky words’ or ‘action words’.
• Pupils should have individual reading books that they take home. These books are closely matched to their increasing knowledge of phonics and the ‘tricky words’. This is so that, early on, they experience success and gain confidence that they are readers. Re-reading and discussing these books with the teacher supports their increasingly fluent decoding.
• Alongside this, the teachers read a wide range of stories, poetry and non-fiction to pupils; they are soon able to read these texts for themselves. As well as daily guided reading sessions.
• Learning should be triangulated. The sound taught should be seen in books and within the provision.
• Working walls and displays should support current learning and reflect phases being taught.
• Activities should be available for children to explore independently both in the classroom and outside areas.

Reception

The teaching of phonics in Reception follows the structure of Little Wandle phonics programme. They work through Phase 1 to Phase 4.

• The Sequence of phonics:
• Review previous graphemes, phonemes and common exception words taught
• Teach new common exception word and grapheme / phoneme,
• Practise writing words with the grapheme in
• Apply to writing sentences using the common exception word taught, and words with the grapheme taught. Children also have the opportunity to continue to apply this knowledge in areas of provision
• Whole class – all children are expected to write words and sentences in every session daily (In some cases the specific needs of individual children require them to be removed from the whole class approach and be taught in a smaller group with a trained member of staff).

- In addition to this children are encouraged to write throughout the setting both indoors and out.

- Classroom displays are designed to support independent application of phonics skills, including a word bank of action words, and a phase 2 and 3 phonic display. Use of these displays is modelled daily during letters and sounds sessions.

Year 1

The teaching of phonics in Year 1 follows the structure of Little Wandle phonics programme working through reviewing Phase 3 and 4 and teaching Phase 5.

During Year 1, teachers should build on work from the Early Years Foundation Stage, making sure that pupils can sound and blend unfamiliar printed words quickly and accurately using the phonic knowledge and skills that they have already learnt. Teachers should also ensure that pupils continue to learn new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and revise and consolidate those learnt earlier. The understanding that the letter(s) on the page represent the sounds in spoken words should underpin pupils’ reading and spelling of all words. This includes common words containing unusual GPCs. The term ‘common exception words’ is used throughout the programmes of study for such words.

Alongside this knowledge of GPCs, pupils need to develop the skill of blending the sounds into words for reading and establish the habit of applying this skill whenever they encounter new words. This will be supported by practise in reading books consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and skill and their knowledge of common exception words. At the same time, they will need to hear, share and discuss a wide range of high-quality books to develop a love of reading and broaden their vocabulary.’

End of Year 1 expectations

It is our aim that by the end of Year 1 children:

• Pass the Year 1 phonics screening.
• Are secure in Phase 5 of letters and sounds and are ready to access support for spelling
• Know the grapheme/ phoneme recognition for phase 2, 3 and 5 graphemes, including alternative graphemes.
• Can apply this knowledge to reading and writing words.

Year 2

The teaching of phonics in Year 2 recaps previously learning from Year 1 following the Little Wandle programme but then moves on to using the Nelson spelling scheme as well as year group expectations for grammar and punctuation and Big Cat Collins reading books.

By the beginning of Year 2, pupils should be able to read all common graphemes. They should be able to read unfamiliar words containing these graphemes, accurately and without undue hesitation, by sounding them out in books that are matched closely to each pupil’s level of word reading knowledge. They should also be able to read many common words containing GPCs taught so far [for example, shout, hand, stop, or dream], without needing to blend the sounds out loud first. Pupils’ reading of common exception words [for example, you, could, many, or people], should be secure. Pupils will increase their fluency by being able to read these words easily and automatically. Finally, pupils should be able to retell some familiar stories that have been read to and discussed with them or that they have acted out during Year 1.

During Year 2, teachers should continue to focus on establishing pupils’ accurate and speedy word reading skills. They should also make sure that pupils listen to and discuss a wide range of stories, poems, plays and information books; this should include whole books. The sooner that pupils can read well and do so frequently, the sooner they will be able to increase their vocabulary, comprehension and their knowledge across the wider curriculum.

Children who have not reached the expected standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 will retake the check in the June of Year 2.  These children will receive additional targeted support to achieve this. This support is through in-class intervention or as part of our school’s targeted provision.

Reading books

• Children have phonetic home reading books and group reading books to apply their phonics knowledge and skills to reading.
• Children have access to these books when in EYFS, Year 1, and children in Year 2 who have not passed phonics screening, and children in KS2 who did not pass phonics screening.
• Children take home a free choice library book weekly.

Additional adults

The role of additional adults during the whole class teaching of phonics is immeasurably useful.

They can:

• Join in and keep the pace up
• Model responses
• Run the activity side by side with the teacher (e.g. in rhyme generation, two adults writing words are quicker than one)
• Ask a searching question if they think some children haven’t quite understood
• Note which children appear secure in their knowledge and which are not
• Support an individual child
• Take notes of individuals, or observe a teaching strategy to prepare for a similar session with a smaller group who need additional help

Assessment

On entry to Reception, children are assessed as to their phonic knowledge using NFER, and re-assessed at regular intervals after that. Throughout the school teachers use on-going formative assessment, which feeds in to the planning process, and allows teachers to adapt the programme accordingly.

At the end of Year 1 the statutory phonics assessment will take place – Year 1 phonics screening check (Standards and Testing Agency 2012) this takes place in June of each year. Assessments are based upon:

• Grapheme-phoneme correspondences
• Oral blending
• Oral segmentation
• Non-word reading

Children who have not reached the expected standard in the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1 will retake the check in the June of Year 2. 

Phonics Vocabulary

 

• Letter names: To be used all the time when referring to all letters.
• Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound
• Grapheme: The representation of a phoneme in written form
• Alternative grapheme: Variety of different ways of representing the same phoneme.
• Digraph: Collections of two letters that make one sound. Examples include; this, rain, book and seed.
• Trigraph: Collections of three letters that make one sound. Examples include; night pair.
• Spilt digraph: A split digraph contains two letters (a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e) but they are split between a consonant, for example; make, bike.
• Blending: Blending phonemes into words.
• Blending arm: A strategies used to support with segmenting and blending words
• Segmenting: Segmenting words into phonemes.
• Phoneme/sound button: Phoneme buttons are dots or lines that can be written underneath a grapheme to support reading. When you touch the phoneme button you then practice saying the phoneme aloud.
• Phoneme frame: A phoneme frame is separated into columns to match the number of phonemes that can be heard in a word. Therefore, using a phoneme frame is very beneficial to help children identify that middle phoneme as they can see clearly from the frame, how many phonemes they are listening out for and how many letters they need to write. (This is only used if children require further support that isn’t provided by phoneme buttons).