How can I help my child with Phonics?
We recognise that phonics is just one element of learning to become a reader and a writer. Alongside synthetic phonics we have author studies in each term in each class. We encourage our pupils to read voraciously by reading to them regularly as a class, by providing extensive library areas in each classroom, by discussing what we read in guided reading and reinforcing this with one to one reading. This section of our website is to help you understand the phonics that we use in our school. There are links to youtube videos to help your understanding, a phonics glossary and further reading.
At Brereton we use the Read Write Inc Phonics Scheme devised by Ruth Miskin. It is a whole-school phonics programme for 3-7 year-olds designed to create fluent readers and willing writers.
Pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all spend fifteen to twenty minutes every day learning and using sounds. Time is spent listening to sounds, forming letters, recognising letters, forming words, recognising words and writing words. In this way we hope that we are able to provide each child with the skills to decode and encode new words.
We break down the forty-four phonemes in the English language into small groups to make learning easier. These are then taught in sequence, not alphabetically.
Speed SoundsSet 1 |
m a s d ti n p g oc k u bf e l h sh rj v y wth z ch qu x ng nk |
Children are taught to: -Say the sound -Read the sound -Write the sound |
Sound-letter pictures are used to help children learn these sounds quickly. |
Speed SoundsSet 2 |
ay ee igh ow oo oo ar or air ir ou oy |
Children are taught to: -As above plus -Read the green word cards in Fred talk (sound blending) -Spell words using Fred fingers (finger spelling) |
Children learn these sounds by association with simple phrases eg ‘ay - may I play?’ |
Speed SoundsSet 3 |
ea oi e a-e i-e o-e u-e aw are ur er ow ai oa ew ire ear ure |
Children are taught to: -As above plus -Read alternative spellings of the same sound -Read and spell words with alternative spellings of the same sound eg day, make, train |
Once they are confident with phonics, our pupils move into spelling groups. More information about spelling is available on ‘How can I help my child with Spelling?’
Phonics Glossary
Hard and Soft Consonant Sounds: some graphemes “c” (/k/ and /s/) or “g” (/g/ and /j/);
Consonant Digraph: two consonants together that constituent letter), like ship, chip, ph
Consonant Blend: a sequence of two or three consonants, each of which is heard. (last word has a triple consonant blend)
Consonant Cluster: A sequence of consonants without a vowel between them, including digraphs and blends ( shriek, lunch)
Decode : to take written letters and translate them into phonemes while decoding, the words must be recognised by the reader from his/her aural vocabulary
Encode: to translate spoken language into written symbols, the opposite of decoding; writing, particularly invented spelling, is an act of encoding as the writer attempts to write letters that represent the sounds present in words
Graphemes: letters - written symbols that represent phonemes
Phoneme - the basic unit of sound
Phonics: the relationships between the sounds of a language and the letters those sounds
Vowel Digraph: two letters together that are vowels
Spilt Digraph: two letters, split, making one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e in site
Onset: the beginning consonant sound
Rime: the vowel sound and any others that follow it in share a rime.
Morphemes: Meaning units within a word, including prefixes, suffixes, and base words (Example: “unhappy” has two morphemes, un and happy, and each contributes to the word’s meaning)
These Read Write Inc Resources are all sold by Amazon if you would like to reinforce at home the work that we do at school.
Top Tips
Please remember little and often is far more effective than a lot, now and again.
Phonics is teaching the letter sounds. Please also teach the letter names. Refer to them as letter sounds and letter names. Your child needs to know both.
Use ‘My turn - Your turn’ as we do in school. Touch your chest with your palm when it’s your turn and open your hand to them when it is their turn.
Every time they copy you correctly praise them. If they copy incorrectly show them again and praise when they get it right.
Use ‘Fred sounds’ and ‘Fred fingers’ to help. Watch the video clips on you tube to help you understand these.
In the Phonics Screening test your child will be asked to read a list of real and nonsense words. Please incorporate nonsense words in to your homework.