2. Six phase teaching programme.

3. Seven aspects 1 Environmental sounds 2 Instrumental sounds 3 Body percussion 4 Rhythm and rhyme 5 Alliteration 6 Voice sounds 7 Oral blending and segmenting

4. General sound discrimination 1 Environmental sounds 2 Instrumental sounds 3 Body percussion Tuning into sounds Listening and remembering sounds

5. Learn to tune into and discriminate between familiar, everyday sounds e.g. In the environment, made by instruments, made using body percussion. (concrete) Before can be expected to associate sounds with letters. (abstract)

6. General sound discrimination Listening to sounds indoors and outdoors. Tuning into and identifying sounds. Remembering sounds.

7. General sound discrimination Play a hidden instrument. Identifying instrument making the sound. Remember sounds made by instruments. E.g. Loud, quiet, ringing etc

8. General sound discrimination Make sounds with body. E.g. Clapping, stamping, tapping knees Remember sounds can make with body. Make a pattern of sounds e.g. Clap, stamp, clap, stamp etc. Match sounds to instruments e.g. Stamp (drum), clap (castanet) tap knees (maraca).

9. Developing skills of general sound discrimination Tuning into sounds Listening and remembering sounds

10. Talking about sounds Describing sounds Loud or quiet sounds Ringing, rattling, banging, booming, clicking, jingling, scraping etc Tuning into the sounds but also developing language.

11. 4 Rhythm and rhyme 5 Alliteration 6 Voice sounds 7 Oral blending and segmenting Valuable pre reading and writing skills.

12. Children cover all 7 aspects and repeat cycle until secure. Once secure with aspects 1 to 3 then focus on 4 to 7. 4 to 7 involve more challenging skills.

13. Skill of recognising when pairs of words rhyme. Continue a rhyming string. Fun games Reading rhyming stories and chanting rhyming pairs. E.g. The Gruffalo, The duck in the truck Substituting rhyming words in nursery rhymes. Rhyming lotto and pairs card games. Rhyming games on Cbeebies etc. Clapping rhythms to copy.

14. Words that begin with the same sound. Identifying initial sounds in names and identifying names with the same sound e.g. Family, friends, teddies etc. Making up silly alliterative sentences with names e.g. Happy Helen hugs hippos. ‘I spy’. List other words beginning with same sound. Games e.g. Lotto, pairs, sorting pictures etc.

15. Important that children have plenty of experience of listening to adults modelling oral blending of cvc words before they are introduced to written words. E.g. ‘Get your c-oa-t.’ Say sounds in cvc words for children to blend and say the word. Use a teddy. Fun games such as ‘I spy’ and using cvc objects/pictures. ‘Can you find the p-i-g?’

16. When children are used to hearing words said in sound talk c-a-t and when they can blend the sounds together and say the word, they can begin to speak in sound talk themselves. Model this as appropriate. The children can take the lead in the games and practise segmenting. E.g. ‘I spy a h-a-t.’ You take on the role of blending the sounds and saying the word ‘hat’. Use robot arms. Pre reading and spelling skills.

17. Distinguish between the differences in vocal sounds. Explore mouth movements e.g. blowing, sucking, tongue stretching and wiggling. Make different voice sounds e.g. Wheee! (down a slide), boing, boing (ball bouncing), ssssss (snake hissing) etc. Explore speech sounds. Making high, low, loud, quiet sounds etc. Talk about sounds we can make with voices. Speaking in different voices e.g. Whispering, growling, shouting, squeaking etc. Link to stories e.g. Bear Hunt, Billy Goats Gruff etc.

18. Once children are secure at tuning into and remembering sounds e.g. environmental, instrumental sounds and once they can identify rhyming pairs we begin to teach Phase 2. Alliteration and oral blending and segmenting can continue to be taught and consolidated as part of Phase 2 teaching.

19. Letter progression (one set per week) Set 1: s, a, t, p Set 2: i, n, m, d Set 3: g, o, c, k Set 4: ck, e, u, r Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss Tricky words to read: I, to, the, no, go, into Children will learn to read and write cvc words. Once children can blend sounds to read cvc words, and once they can identify most of the above letter sounds, they will be given a reading book.

20. There is no expectation that children should begin Phase 2 in Lower Foundation. Most children will begin Phase 2 in Upper Foundation. Children will be introduced to Phase 2 only when they are ready. Once they can securely tune into and remember everyday sounds and when they can identify words that rhyme.

21. Children will be taught the letter name and sound for each letter. They will be taught to form each letter using the cursive script. Handwriting policy is available on the website, containing the cursive script.

22. Children are encouraged to make marks and ascribe meaning to their marks before they learn to write words. Throughout Lower Foundation children will be encouraged to make marks and ascribe meaning to their marks. Opportunities include cards, shopping lists, messages, labelling their pictures etc Children may make lines and squiggles, circles and lines, strings of recognisable letters etc It is important that we value their marks and the meaning they ascribe to their marks. The purpose of mark making is to give children the confidence to write, and to understand that print conveys meaning, which will support them when they begin to learn to write words, captions and sentences.

23. The ‘Letters and Sounds’ document can be accessed online as a PDF document. It contains lots of activities for each aspect of Phase 1. Have fun!!

24. Handwriting script available on school website. Select Curriculum, English, Handwriting Policy. Pages 6 and 7.