Phonics
Phonics
What is Phonics?
Phonics is the teaching of early reading. It starts with recognising sounds around us, being able push words together orally and moves onto reading sounds in words to building fluency in reading sentences.
At St Mary Magdalene we use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds to teach phonics.
In Nursery, children engage daily in Phase 1 activities. These activities support the children to learn new vocabulary and to develop speaking and listening skills. They complete activities such as listening for sounds around us, making sounds with our bodies and matching rhyming words.
In Reception and Year 1, phonics is taught daily for 20-30 minutes. Each lesson includes an opportunity to review previously learned skills, practise oral blending and teach new phonemes/graphemes to support children to read new words. They will then read a sentence containing the new sound they are learning.
Phonic assessments are made half termly in Reception and Year 1 and with those still working on the phonic scheme in Years 2-6. Intervention groups are set up across the school to support all learners.
In the Summer term, children in Year 1 will sit the Phonics Screening Check.
What does Phonics look like at Mary Mags?
The progression of phonics.
Children start learning Phonics at St Mary Magdalene in Nursery.
In Nursery Phase 1 phonics is introduced looking at sounds around them, oral blending and segmenting and recognising rhyme in spoken word.
In Reception, Phase 2 ,3 and 4 is taught where they begin learning sounds, blending letters to read words, recognising digraphs (2 letters 1 sound) and trigraphs (3 letters 1 sound) and reading longer words by chopping up words.
In Year 1, we move onto Phase 5 where we look at alternate words such as a for cat and a for acorn.
The document below outlines the skills and knowledge that will be taught each half term in Reception and Year 1.
How can I help at home?
Follow the link below to the parents section of the Little Wandle website. Here you will find further information to help you support your child with their phonics at home. There are also links for sites where you can play games.
