1. Phonics at Brackenbury
15th November 2017

2. Phonics is a core element in learning to read and write.
It is recommended as the first strategy that children should be taught in helping them learn to read and write.
It runs alongside other teacher methods such as guided and shared reading to help children develop all vital reading skills and give them a real love of reading.
What is phonics?

3. Words are made up from small units of sound called phonemes.
Phonics teaches children to listen carefully and identify the phonemes that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read words and to spell words.
What is phonics?

4. GPCs
Children are taught GPCs: grapheme phoneme correspondences. This means that the children are taught the phonemes in the English language and ways of writing them down. These are taught in a particular order. The first sounds taught are
s a t p i n
What is phonics?

5. m a p What is phonics? Blending
Children are taught to be able to blend. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word and are able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is. This skill is vital in learning to read.
m a p
What is phonics?

6. What is phonics? Segmenting
Children are taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending. Children are able to say a word and then break it up into the phonemes that make it. This skill is vital in being able to spell words.
What is phonics?

7. graphemes: a s p digraphs: ch th oo ay
The English language is a bit complicated!
English has 44 phonemes but there are around 120 ways of writing these down.
We have only 26 letters in the alphabet so some graphemes are made up from more than one letter.
graphemes: a s p digraphs: ch th oo ay
trigraphs: igh
What makes phonics tricky?

8. What makes phonics tricky?
Another problem is that some graphemes can represent more than one phoneme.
Ch: chip, school, chef.
Ow: cow, snow.
Y: yes, happy, fly.
And some graphemes are split digraphs!
What makes phonics tricky?

9. What makes phonics tricky?
Written language is basically a kind of a code.
Teaching phonics is just teaching children to crack that code.
Children learn the simple bits first and then progress to get the hang of the trickier bits.
What makes phonics tricky?

10. At Brackenbury, we teach phonics following the Letters and Sounds programme. We follow phonicsplay.co.uk plans and use their online resources.
In Reception this is supported by Jolly Phonics.
How do we teach
phonics?

11. s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b l / ll f / ff ss
Phase 2 (Reception)
Children learn the letter sounds and what the graphemes look like.
They learn 19 letter sounds.
s a t p i n m d g o c k ck e u r h b l / ll f / ff ss
The children move from oral blending and segmenting to blending and segmenting with letters.
How do we teach
phonics?

12. How do we teach phonics? Phase 2 (Reception)
At the end of this phase most children will be able to read simple words, such as is, it, in, dog, mat, pin.
They practise letter formation and can write some CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words, e.g. cat.
They will have been introduced to ‘tricky words’ – words that cannot be decoded easily at this stage.
the to go no into
How do we teach
phonics?

13. How do we teach phonics? Phase 3 (Reception)
In this phase, children are taught 25 graphemes.
Most of these have two letters. These are called digraphs.
A digraph is two letters that represent one sound.
E.g. sh ch th ai ee oa oo
The children will start to learn the letter names.
How do we teach
phonics?

14. Phase 3 (Reception)
How do we teach
phonics?

15. Phase 4 (Reception and Year 1)
In this phase, children consolidate what they have learned in Phases 2 and 3. They will be able to represent each of the 44 sounds using letters.
They will practise reading two syllable words.
They will know the letter names and be able to read and spell some tricky words.
How do we teach
phonics?

16. Phase 4 (Reception and Year 1)
In phase 4 children learn to read words with adjacent consonants / consonant blends.
E.g. Slip green tent gift.
How do we teach
phonics?

17. How do we teach phonics? Phase 5 (Year 1)
In Phase 5, children are introduced to new graphemes for reading.
Some of these represent sounds that they have already learned a grapheme for.
For example, in Phase 5 children are taught the sound ‘ai’ (as in ‘rain’). In Phase 5 they are taught that this sound can also be represented by ‘ay’ or ‘a – e’.
How do we teach
phonics?

18. How do we teach
phonics?

19. How do we teach phonics? Phase 6 (Year 2)
By Phase 6, children should be able to read and write words using a variety of spelling choices. They should be confident reading tricky words and be becoming fluent readers.
Phase 6 focuses on spelling. The new National Curriculum has changed how we teach Phase 6 and we supplement this with additional spelling focuses.
How do we teach
phonics?

20. Let’s give it a go! There are a number of phonics activities set up.
Please find your child’s year group and give the games a go. You are welcome to visit other year groups as well!
Reception:
sorting objects / pictures by their initial sound.
Adding sound buttons to words.
Using magnetic letters to segment words and spell them.
How many words can you make using these letters: e.g. satpin.
Year 1: buried treasure.
Adding sound buttons to words – spotting digraphs. Putting the words into phoneme frames.
Creating words with split digraphs.
Year 2:
Pick a word – roll a dice. Write it in that way.
Let’s give it a go!

21. Practise reading the tricky words on the back of your child’s card.
Use the letter names if spelling their name or a digraph. E.g. Charlie.
When reading: if your child is stuck, practise saying the sounds in the words and blending them. When writing, practise segmenting the words.
Spot digraphs: can your child find the digraphs on the page before reading it?
How can you help?