Phonics

Here at Ham Dingle we passionately believe that all children should learn to read before they read to learn. We are determined that every pupil will learn to read regardless of background, needs or abilities. For that very reason early reading is taught through the delivery of ‘Read, Write Inc’ Phonics.

Read Write Inc. Phonics is a complete literacy programme, for 3 to 7 year-olds learning to read and write and for 7 and 8 year-olds needing to catch up quickly. Although reading is taught using synthetic phonics, the programme is so much more than that. It covers all of the new National Curriculum requirements for language and literacy.

What is Phonics?

Words are made up from small units of sound called phonemes. Phonics teaches children to be able to listen carefully and identify the phonemes that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read and spell words.

In phonics sessions children are taught three main skills:

Skill 1. Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs)

Children are taught GPCs. This simply means that they are taught all the phonemes (sounds) in the English language and ways of writing them down (letters).

Some graphemes can represent more than one phoneme. For example, ‘ch’ makes very different sounds in these three words: chip, school, chef.

Skill 2. Blending

Children are taught to be able to blend. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word and are able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is.

This skill is vital in learning to read.

Skill 3. Segmenting

Children are also taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending. Children are able to say a word and then break it up into the phonemes that make it up.

This skill is vital in being able to spell words.

Programme progression:

In Reception all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down.

Reading

The children:

• learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
• learn to read words using Fred talk (see below) and sound blending
• read from a range of storybooks and non-fictions books matched to their phonic knowledge
• work well with partners
• develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions

Writing

The children:

• learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
• learn to write words by using Fred Talk
• learn to build sentences by practising sentences out loud before they write 

Talking

The children

• They work in pairs so that they:
• answer every question
• practise every activity with their partner
• take turns in talking and reading to each other
• develop ambitious vocabulary

Year One

Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Once children become fluent speedy readers. They are taught the sounds in 3 sets 

Step 1:

Set 1 Sounds are taught in the following order together with rhymes to help children instantly recognise sounds ready for blending.

m, a,s,d,t,i,n,p,g,o,c,k,u,b,f,e,l,h,sh,r,j,v,y,w,th,z,ch,qu,v,ng,nk

Children will also use pictures for each sound to help recognise the sound 

Step 2:

The children are then taught Set 2 Sounds - the long vowels. When they are very confident with all of set 1 and 2 they are taught Set 3 Sounds.

Nonsense words (Alien words)    
As well as learning to read and blend real words children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills on reading ‘Nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year One Phonics Screening check in the summer term.     

Fred Talk

What is Fred Talk?

Teachers will introduce your child to a toy frog called Fred once he or she is ready to start reading words.

Fred can only say the sounds in a word and needs your child to help him read the word. Fred will say the sounds and children will work out the word.

For example, Fred will say the sounds c–a–t, and children will say the word cat. This is Fred Talk: sounding out the word.

The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred. 

Step 3:

Alongside learning the sounds, children will first be introduced to ‘Ditty books’ when they successfully begin to read single words. The short vowels should be kept short and sharp:

Children use sound-blending (Fred Talk) to read short ditties. They will bring these home once they have read and discussed the book in class. Children will then be challenged to use their developing phonic knowledge to write short sentences.

Within all the books children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable.

Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.

During the RWI session children will read the book three times and at each new reading they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. You may have heard your child talking about ‘hold, edit or build a sentence’.

Hold a sentence is an activity that encourages children to remember a whole sentence while focusing on spelling and punctuation.

Build a sentence is to give children the opportunity to create their own sentence to that shows the meaning of a word and edit a sentence allows the children to critique a sentence using their knowledge of spelling punctuation and grammar. Children complete a longer piece of independent writing, which gives them the opportunity to show off their creativity and to practice their spelling, grammar and punctuation.

 Order of Story books: Children will hopefully follow the order listed below. The expectation is that all children will leave Year One as confident speedy readers, ready to take on the challenges of Year Two. However, some children may need extra support and your teacher will talk to you about this. 

Phonics Screening Check Year One

What is the Year 1 phonics screening check?

The Year 1 phonics screening check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard.

It will identify the children who need extra help so they are given support by their school to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check so that schools can track pupils until they are able to decode.

Fidelity to the teaching programme, rigorous assessment, tracking and tutoring ensures that the school guarantees progress for every child. One-to-one tutoring ensures that no children are left behind. Children have positive early experiences of learning to read - they are successful and progress quickly