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Phonics and Early Reading at Brookvale Primary School

in EYFS and Y1, phonics and early reading are taught through the

"Little wandle letters and sounds revised" ssp

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

What is phonics?

Phonics is making connections between the sounds of our spoken words and the letters that are used to write them down.

Phonics teaching is a vital part of English and provides the foundations of reading and writing. At Brookvale Primary School, we aim to teach children fluent word reading skills and provide a secure foundation in spelling from the earliest opportunity.

Phonics teaching involves showing children the sounds of letters – not the letter names – and how these sounds can be blended together to make words. For example, the word “pot” is a decodable word because the letter sounds can be blended together: p-o-t = pot

However, not all words are decodable and the children will be taught these as “Tricky Words” and have to be able to read them on sight. For example, the word “was” cannot be blended together as the “a” letter makes an “o” sound in the word.

Phonics at Brookvale

At Brookvale Primary School we use a scheme called “Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised”. This is organised into six “phases” which children progress through as their phonics and reading ability improves.

Children in Nursery will explore the first phase, "Foundations for Phonics" which consists of 2 objectives - "Tuning Into Sounds" and "Foundations for a Love of Reading".

Phases 2, 3 and 4 will be covered in Reception and Phase 5 is taught throughout Year 1.

Children receive phonics lessons every day - this is non negotiable!. Lessons are 20 - 30 minutes long and delivered by teachers and teaching assistants who are all trained in delivering the phonics and early reading program. Lessons are fast paced with a low "cognitive load" allowing the children to focus completely on the new sounds and words being taught.

Phonics is assessed during each lesson and every 6 weeks to ensure children are making progress - those children with gaps will receive additional support through the scheme's "Keep Up" program. Those children in years 2, 3 and 4 who did not achieve the threshold in the Y1 phonics screening check or who have gaps in their phonics/reading skills will receive Little Wandle's dedicated intervention program, "Rapid Catch Up 7+"

"what do children in EYFS and Ks1 think about phonics and early reading?" here's our pupil voice responses!

“Pure Sounds''

One of the most important areas in teaching Phonics is the correct pronunciation of the sounds – known as “pure sounds”.it is important that children do not say the sounds with an “uh” sound at the end.

EG: the letter “m” should be pronounced “mmmm” not “muh”.

This link demonstrates how all the sounds across the phases should be pronounced.

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

Teaching progression

Here is the overview of the teaching progression during each term/half term. This can fluctuate depending on your child’s progress and teachers will adapt as necessary.

Programme-Overview_Reception-and-Year-1-1 (1).pdf

Key Terms

Here are the key terms we use when teaching Phonics – we use these as much as possible with the children once we feel they are ready.

Phoneme - The smallest unit of sound.
Grapheme - A way of writing a phoneme.
GPC - Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence. Knowing a GPC means you can match a phoneme to a grapheme and vice versa.
Digraph - A grapheme containing two letters that makes one phoneme. Vowel digraph - two vowels, which make one phoneme, e.g. ai, oo, ow.
Split digraph - two letters, split, making one phoneme, e.g. a-e as in make.
Trigraph - A grapheme containing three letters that makes one phoneme.
Blend - to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word.

e.g. s-n-ai-l blends to snail.

Oral segmenting - To hear a word and break it up into phonemes.
Segmenting - To hear a word, break it up into individual phonemes and write the graphemes in the correct order.
HFW– High Frequency Words are words that are seen most often in reading books.
Tricky Words - Words that can’t be segmented and blended.

early reading

Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.

There are two types of reading book that your child will bring home:

A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.

Your child will read this book with an adult in class 3 times per week during their "Reading Practice" sessions. The 3 sessions will focus on decoding and accuracy, reading with expression and fluency and lastly their understanding of what they have read. Each Friday, they will access their book they have been reading in school online. Please ensure your child has their book bag and reading diary in school every day so that we can date and sign each time they read with an adult. Children will also bring home sharing books - these have been labelled "A book for pleasure - please read to me!''

supporting your child

Reading practice book

This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.

Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.

Sharing book

In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together.

Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!

the phonics screening check

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What is the Phonics Screening Check?

During the summer term, children in Year 1 take part in the Phonics Screening Check. This is a statutory requirement and is a quick and easy check of each child’s individual knowledge. It helps us as a school confirm whether a child has made the expected progress. It is delivered in a low key manner on a 1-1 basis. The children do not know they are being “tested” as we do regular “checks” throughout Year 1.

What are ‘non/pseudo-words’?

The check will contain a mix of real words and ‘non-words’ or ‘pseudo-words’ (or ‘nonsense/alien words’). Children will be told before the check that there will be non-words that he or she will not have seen before. Children will be familiar with this because we already use ‘non-words’ when teaching phonics. Non-words are important to include because words such as ‘vap’ or ‘jound’ are new to all children. Children cannot read the non-words by using their memory or vocabulary; they have to use their decoding skills. This is a fair way to assess their ability to decode.

After the check

We will tell you about your child’s progress in phonics and how they have done in the screening check in the last half-term of Year 1.

If your child has found the check difficult, we will also tell you what support we have put in place to help them improve.

Children who have not met the standard in Year 1 will retake the check in Year 2. All children are individuals and develop at different rates. The screening check ensures that teachers understand which children need extra help with phonic decoding.

How you can help at home!

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By making sure your child has their book bag in school with them every day
By practising any letters, sounds and tricky words in their book bags every day.
Your child will be sent home a phonetically decodable book at their reading/phonics level. They should be able to read this to you with fluency - please celebrate your child's successful reading - it should not be a challenge to them!