Reading and Phonics
Central to learning is creating a life long love of reading and books. This starts from the first moment that children enter our Nursery provision where we encourage and create opportunities to read, write and show interests in letters, words, sounds and books.
The Topsham School follows the Letters and Sounds phonic programme. Letters and Sounds is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read and write by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children enabling them to become fluent readers and writers.
There are six overlapping phases. The table below is a summary based on the Letters and Sounds guidance for Practitioners and Teachers. The Year groups listed in brackets suggest the age that children are taught each phase, but some children will progress more rapidly than others.
The Topsham School follows the Letters and Sounds phonic programme. Letters and Sounds is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read and write by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children enabling them to become fluent readers and writers.
There are six overlapping phases. The table below is a summary based on the Letters and Sounds guidance for Practitioners and Teachers. The Year groups listed in brackets suggest the age that children are taught each phase, but some children will progress more rapidly than others.
Phonic Knowledge and Skills
PHASE ONE (Nursery/reception)
Activities are divided into seven aspects, including environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds and finally oral blending and segmenting.
phase two (reception) up to 6 weeks
Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound of each. Blending sounds together to make words. Segmenting words into their separate sounds. Beginning to read simple captions.
phase three (reception) up to 12 weeks
The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters. Reading captions, sentences and questions. On completion of this phase, children will have learnt the 'simple code' i.e. one grapheme for each phoneme in the English language.
phase four (reception) 4 to 6 weeks
No new grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught in this phase. Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump.
phase five (throughout year 1)
Now we move on to the 'complex code'. Children learn more graphemes for the phonemes which they already know, plus different ways of pronouncing the graphemes they already know.
phase six (throughout year 2 and beyond)
Working on spelling, including prefixes and suffixes, doubling and dropping letters etc.
For more detailed information, visit the Letters and Sounds website
What is Letters and Sounds?
How can parents support their child to develop phonic knowledge?
Speaking to your child’s teacher to gain a personalised overview is the best way to support your child. However, the below games are fun and easy to play and will help your child to build confidence. Games are a terrific way to support your child: they will learn as they play without feeling pressured.
Your child’s teacher completes regular assessments of your child’s progress and so will be able to inform you if they have completed a particular phonic stage. It is important that children do not rush through the different phases until they are ready to move on, as they need to consolidate their phonic knowledge to prevent misconceptions forming.
Speaking to your child’s teacher to gain a personalised overview is the best way to support your child. However, the below games are fun and easy to play and will help your child to build confidence. Games are a terrific way to support your child: they will learn as they play without feeling pressured.
Your child’s teacher completes regular assessments of your child’s progress and so will be able to inform you if they have completed a particular phonic stage. It is important that children do not rush through the different phases until they are ready to move on, as they need to consolidate their phonic knowledge to prevent misconceptions forming.
