English Lead: Mrs Teresa Bosley
Phonics
Phonics is the way we teach children to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.
Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children decode words as they read.
Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words.
Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch.
Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out. For example, when a child is taught the sounds for the letters t, p, a and s, they can start to build up the words: “tap”, “taps”, “pat”, “pats” and “sat”.
In Reception and Year One we use the Little Wandle Phonics Programme.
The reading books children are given are decodable and only contain sounds they know. The children should be able to read their reading book fluently so that they also understand the text they are reading. Children should read each book several times, this will help them to develop their fluency and their comprehension of the text.
It is important that children learn to say the pure sounds. These videos model how to say the pure sounds.