Phonics

Phonics Information for Parents

“Being able to read is the most important skill children will learn during their early schooling and has far-reaching implications for lifelong confidence and well-being.”

Annabel Cooper is the Phonics Lead in school.

What is Phonics?

Phonics is the link between letters and the sounds they make.
Learning Phonics will help your child to become a good reader and writer.
Every child in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 have a daily Phonic session.
Phonics is taught through a daily fast paced 20 minute session.
Schools follow the ‘Monster Phonics' planning document.

There are six phases which the children work through at their own pace.

Important tips—

When reading and spelling use the sound the letter makes rather than the letter name.
Always say the ‘pure sound’ by trying not to emphasise an ’uh’ at the end of a sound. For example ‘mmm’ not ‘muh’.
When spelling encourage your child to think about what looks right. For example a good attempt at spelling the word ‘castle’ would be ‘casul’.

At Spalding Parish Church of England Day School we follow the Monster Phonics programme which consists of six phases. An outline of these Phases can be found below:

Monster Phonics Information for Parents

Phase 1

Phase 1 concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills. Children are encouraged to hear rhyme in words, identify initial sounds and blend sounds together orally.

Oral blending is key; children need to practise hearing a series of spoken sounds and merging them together to make a word. For example, you say ‘b-u-s’, and your child says ‘bus’.

Phase 2

In Phase 2, letters and their sounds are introduced one at a time. A set of letters is taught each week, in the following sequence:

Set 1: s, a, t, p

Set 2: i, n, m, d

Set 3: g, o, c, k

Set 4: ck, e, u, r

Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

Children should be able to blend and read decodable real and pretend words containing these sounds such as

i-n w-u-ck b-o-ss p-o-ck

Children are also introduced to tricky words. These are the words that cannot be read by decoding sounds and they must be learnt to read on sight.

The tricky words in Phase 2 are:

the

Phase 3

The following sounds are taught in Phase 3 -

Consonant digraphs (two letters one sound): ch, sh, th, ng

Vowel digraphs(two letters one sound): /trigraphs(three letters one sound): ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

qu	quick	ai	wait	oo	moon	oi	soil
ch	chop	ee	meet	ar	car	ear	hear
sh	shop	igh	light	or	corn	air	hair
th	thick	oa	goat	ur	burn	ure	pure
ng	ring	oo	book	ow	cow	er	term

The tricky words in Phase 3 are:

he	she	we	me	be	was
you	they	all	are	my	her

Phase 4

In Phase 4 children will learn to read and write polysyllabic words e.g. computer, shampoo.

They will learn to read and write words with adjacent consonants. For example:

CVCC tent pink

CCVC crab plan

CCVCC crept shrimp

The tricky words in Phase 4 are:

said	have	like	so	out
do	some	come	were	what
there	little	one	when

Phase 5

The following sounds are taught in Phase 5 -

ay	day	ir	girl	ew	new	i_e	like
ou	out	ue	blue	oe	toe	o_e	home
ie	tie	aw	saw	au	launch	u_e	rude
ea	eat	wh	when	a_e	make
oy	toy	ph	photo	e_e	these

*a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e and u_e are known as split digraphs

The tricky words in Phase 5 are:

oh	asked	again	because
their	could	thought	different
people	should	through	any
Mr	would	work	eyes
Mrs	water	mouse	friends
looked	where	many	once
called	who	laughed	please

Phase 6

Phase 6 focuses on spellings and learning rules for spelling alternatives. Children learn rules for making words plural and past tense.

Don’t Forget :

Look at your child’s Sound Book every week.
Hear your child read as often as possible and sign their Reading Ramble (at least twice a week).
Reading should be fun for both children and parents.
A fun ten minutes is more valuable than a difficult half an hour!