1. Phonics and Spelling in
Year 1

2. What is ‘phonics’?
Building on the skills that children developed last year, they are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word.
Children have a 5 minute daily phonics recap session and a dedicated 20 minute phonics lesson 4 days a week (working at a level appropriate for them).
They are encouraged to use these strategies to read and write throughout their day in all subjects.
There are around 40 different sounds.

4. Year 1 ‘Phonics Screening’ Test
Every Year 1 child in the country now has to take part the phonics screening check in a set week in June.
The aim of the check is to ensure that all children are able to read by the end of Year 2.
This ‘midpoint check’ will ensure that we have a clear understanding of what the children need to learn when they go into Year 2.

5. THIS IS NOT A READING TEST
What will the children
be expected to do?
The check is very similar to one of the activities the children do during phonics lessons.
Children will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together eg d-o-g - dog
The focus of the check is to see which sounds the children know and therefore the children will also be asked to read made up ‘alien’ words.
THIS IS NOT A READING TEST

6. Examples of words:

7. Examples of words:

8. When will the screening take place?
The screening will take place throughout a dedicated week in June. The children cannot retake the test at any other time so it is very important your child is in school during this week.
The check has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.

9. Who will complete the check?
The children will complete the check one at a time in a quiet area of the school.
The class teachers will conduct all of the screening checks with the children.

10. After the test…
School will inform parents about their child’s achievement in the test i.e. whether or not their child has “met the required standard”.
We are not informed of the pass mark until after the test.
The school sends the results to Gloucestershire LA and will remain on the children’s records.

11. What happens to children
who have not reached
the standard?
Children will receive additional targeted support in Year 2.
They will retake the phonics screening check at the end of Year 2, along with the current Year 1 children.

12. How can you help? Digraph- 2 letters making one sound cow
Encourage your child to ‘sound out’ when reading or writing - focusing particularly on spotting more unusual sound patterns.
Digraph- 2 letters making one sound
cow
Trigraphs- 3 letters making one sound
night
Split digraphs- 2 vowels with a consonant inbetween.
Eg. spine - i_e

13. How can you help? http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/Phase4Menu.htm
Encourage your child to use their sound mat when reading and writing at home and use their actions to find the sound they need.
Children can practise their phonics by playing games online.

14. And most importantly ENJOY READING!
REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only thing needed to become a fluent reader!
Please continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:
Sound out.
Look out for tricky words.
Re-read to check it makes sense.
Use pictures for clues.
Ask questions about the book.
And most importantly ENJOY READING!

15. or follow a rule e.g. ‘double letters’……such as little, middle
Spellings
As a school, we have decided to have a particular focus on spelling as this is something that we have found our children find particularly ‘tricky’.
We have decided to split our spelling words into 2 main groups when teaching the children…
1. Tricky Words
(those words that can often not be sounded out but that we just ‘need to learn’ e.g. the, said, where, etc)
2. Spelling Patterns
Looking at words that share a ‘pattern’ when spelling them e.g. a phoneme……such as join, oil, foil, boil, boy, toy, annoy
or follow a rule e.g. ‘double letters’……such as little, middle

16. 1. Tricky Words
These will be sent home in the coming terms and we would ask that you spend time practising them with your child (as they need to see them and try writing them frequently).
You will be familiar with them as ‘sight words’ from last year/Speed read words from this year so if you want to start now, please feel free!
Your child will be given a list of 4 or 6 per week that they will need to practise with you at home – these will then be tested in school at the end of each term.

17. This is the main part of our teaching of spellings in school.
2. Spelling Patterns
This is the main part of our teaching of spellings in school.
Each week, we have a focus on a different phoneme and explore the patterns in sessions, discovering rules if there are any and practising the words in a variety of ways.
We spend approx 15 minutes, 4 times a week on spellings
These are then tested at the beginning of the following week so that we can see how well children are learning the words.
WE DO NOT SEND THESE WORDS HOME BECAUSE WE WANT THE CHILDREN TO APPLY THE RULES RATHER THAN SIMPLY REMEMBER THE WORDS.
However, a list of these words will shortly be available on the school website for you if you are interested to see what we have done.

18. How do we teach spellings?
Everybody learns in different ways…think about yourself…do you learn best by listening? By writing notes? By ‘doing’?
Are you a Visual learner?
Are you an Auditory learner?
Are you a Kinaesthetic learner?
We try to teach the children different strategies to help them learn in ways that lend themselves to these differing styles.

19. How do we teach spellings?
Visual learners
- drawing shapes around words (tall letters/letters with tails) – then matching the shape to the word
writing them in different colours
Highlighting the spelling pattern (e.g. oil, foil)
Matching pairs games
Having letter cards to sequence correctly

20. How do we teach spellings?
Auditory learners
- cheerleading chants
-’Spelling Bee’ repetition
Word ‘codes’
Chinese whispers

21. How do we teach spellings?
Kinaesthetic learners
- playdough letters
- writing in the sand
Chalking
Making the letters using the blocks/cars
Tracing the letters onto our hand
Writing the letters onto someone else’s back and ask them to guess the word.

22. How do we teach spellings?
The idea behind showing the children all of these different techniques, is that they will learn different strategies that help them learn!
These strategies can also be used at home when learning their ‘Tricky words’
Please feel free to stay now and move around the activities which we have set out for you – see which ones seem to help your child more/which do they find trickier?
Can you see how they could be used at home too?
As you’re working, please feel free to ask any questions 