What is Letters and Sounds and how can I help my child?

What is Letters and Sounds? It is a way in which we teach the children to read and write. The children work through phases of learning from Phase 1, in Nursery, up to Phase 6 in Years 2 -3.

Daily Learning We teach Letters and Sounds for 30 minutes each day. The children in Reception are taught within their class. The children in Years 1 – 3 are grouped according to the phase at which they are working at and they may move to other classes for their phonics learning.

Pure sounds When teaching the children to read it is very important that we as teachers and parents use the pure sounds, e.g instead of saying nuh for n, we must teach the children to say nnn. We say sss, and mmm. Here is a clip showing the pure sounds.

Phase 1 Children explore sounds through songs, music, stories and rhymes. Children explore sounds in their environment, indoors and outdoors.

Phase 2 The children learn 21 sounds (phonemes) and 24 graphemes (ways of writing the sounds). The children will learn how to blend (read) and segment (spell) real words and nonsense words e.g. i-s, a-t, s-a-t. The children will learn to read five tricky words the, no, to, I and go.

Phase 3 Learn a further 25 sounds (phonemes) and graphemes (how the sounds look in writing). Be able to blend three sounds to read e.g c-a-sh, r-i-ng, ch-i-p. Be able to spell (segment) words with three phonemes. Read the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all and are. Be able to spell the words the, to, no, I, go.

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Phase 4 Be able to read words with two or more consonants next to each other e.g d-r-i-n-k and b-r-u-sh. Be able to read the tricky words some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out, like, little, what. Be able to spell the tricky words he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are.

Phase 5 Learn different ways in which the same sound is represented in writing. Read automatically the 100 high frequency words. Spell most of the 100 high frequency words.

Phase 6 Learn the rules for spelling words with the endings (suffix) –ing, -ed, -er,-est, -ful, -ly and –y endings. To be able to read and spell the next 200 High frequency words.

Reading in School In Year 1 and 2 the children read at least three times a week to an adult. They may not always read their book which they bring home. It will be another book from school which they read. When your child reads to an adult as part of a small group we will put a stamp in your child’s reading record and it will say ‘Guided reading’. In your child’s reading record there will also be a star and a comment to explain what your child is doing well with and an arrow will indicate what your child needs to practise. Please support us with this by practising with them and checking what they are doing well with and what they need help with.

How to help at home Your child will come home with a phonics booklet with words and phonemes which they need to practise. Help them to learn them each night. Listen to your child read their book and help your child to work on their targets. If you have any questions, speak to your child’s Class Teacher.