Phonics

In Reception, Year 1 and 2 we use a phonics program called Sounds-Write together with a variety of other quality reading schemes such as Oxford Reading Tree. The pupils will take part in phonics lessons. We ask that parents help the children to practice their phonics, reading and spelling with them at home. Towards the end of year 1 pupils will take part in the national Phonics Screening Check where pupils read a set of 40 words (mixture of real and nonsense words) to a teacher. At the end of year 2 pupils take part in the national end of key stage one SATs assessments. It is our intention that whilst going through these assessments pupils feel confident happy and positive about their own learning and do not feel under any pressure at such a young age.

For more information about the Year 1 phonic screening check , please see our Assessments page

Year Group Content

Phonics

Unit 1-6 - letter recognition: a i m s t n o p b c g h d e f v k l r u j w z - segmenting, initial sounds, beginning to blend
Unit 7 - letter recognition: x y ff ll ss zz - segmenting, initial sounds, beginning to blend cvc , vcc
Introduction of HFW:: is, a, the, I, for, of, are, was, all
Unit 8-11 - Introduction to HFW: Come, To, There, Their, These, What, Where, who
Introduction of alien/nonsense words
Consolidation and bridging lessons
Introduction of extended code (units 1-5)
Introduction to HFW: afterthere, their, these, after what, where, who

1:1 Reading

Developing vocabulary skills, explaining picture books, retrieving information from the pictures, and making predictions. Say the sounds and read the word.
Books with words linked to phonic teaching and ability.
ARE: Dandelion Launchers/ SoundsWrite, Initial Code, Unit 7.
Books with words linked to phonic teaching and ability.
Varied vocabulary
Inference skills, retrieval skills.
Say the sounds and read the word, increased pace and fluency.

Phonics

Consolidation of units initial code 9-11
Extended code unit, 1 - 9
Introduce HFW: people (unit 3), oh (unit 5), were (unit 6), many, any, friends (unit 7)
Extended code, unit 10 - 20
Introduce alien words in phonics screener format - where all sounds need to be applied.
Introduce HFW: eyes (unit 11)
Phonics screener practise.
Read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings
Extended code, unit 21 - 25
Introduce HFW: want, wanted, because (unit 25)
Read words with contractions [I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s)
Respond to final phonics screening data - bridge gaps in learning to support Year 2.

1:1 Reading

Echo and choral reading
Variety of texts
Features of non fiction and fiction books.
Common Exception Words
Targeted comprehension skills.
Encourage a love of reading - children to start to develop interests in texts.
Introduce chapter books for those ready.
Share all books with class to discuss genres and content

Phonics

Phonics recap
Unit 26-36 (unit 33 moved to Spring Term, Spelling Patterns)
Children who have failed phonic screener, small group revisit from Unit 1 extended code
Focus on spelling patterns. Sounds-Write, unit 37 onward + 33.

1:1 Reading

Read some common exception words.
Blending the sounds in words that contain the common graphemes for all 40+ phonemes.
Two or more syllables that contain the same grapheme phoneme correspondences
Read aloud many words quickly and accurately
Sound out many unfamiliar words accurately.
Read accurately most words of 2 or more syllables.
Read most words containing common suffixes.
Read most common exception words.
Sound out most unfamiliar words without hesitation.
Make some inferences.
Explain what has happened so far
Read most words accurately so they can focus on their understanding rather than decoding individual words
Checking that the text makes sense to them, explaining the meaning of words in context.
Be able to make some inferences.
Be able to make a plausible prediction
Make links between books

Supporting Videos

We have created a selection of videos to help support our pupils in correctly saying and writing the letters of the alphabet and initial code. Please click on the links below to watch the videos.