Phonics
Early Phonics and Reading
WHAT IS PHONICS?
Phonics is a way of decoding written letters (graphemes) and spoken sounds (phonemes) to read. At The Icknield Primary School we follow a programme called ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ – a government approved systematic synthetic phonics programme for the teaching of phonics.
We believe it is vital children are taught to read as soon as they have started school. We begin our direct teaching of phonics in reception to ensure our children learn phoneme-grapheme-correspondences quickly which supports them in becoming fluent readers. We continue to support children to develop the skills needed for blending (combining sounds to read words) and segmenting (separating words into separate sounds for writing) alongside the teaching of phoneme-grapheme-correspondences.
HOW CAN I SUPPORT MY CHILD WITH PHONICS?
Once your child has started their phonics lessons at school, it is important for children to consolidate this learning so that it becomes part of their long-term memory. We help children to consolidate their learning at school and the additional support parents/carers can provide at home is invaluable in ensuring children become confident readers.
Using the correct pronunciation when saying phonemes is vital for supporting children in their reading journey. Please follow this link
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ and watch the videos demonstrating how to pronounce sounds. Notice how the children don’t add an ‘uh’ sound at the end, so they say: ‘t’ not ‘tuh’. Correct pronunciation of sounds supports children in being able to blend sounds into words so it is important that adults model this accurately.
TERMINOLOGY
Here is a list of some of the language we use when teaching children to read. The children are taught the meaning of these words and become confident to use these terms as part of their vocabulary.
| Phoneme | The smallest unit of sound within a word e.g. ‘sheep’ is made up of 3 phonemes. “sh-ee-p” (around 44 in the English language depending of regional accent) |
| Grapheme | A grapheme is the written representation of a phoneme. e.g. the phoneme ‘c’ can be represented by the graphemes ‘c’, ‘k’, ‘ck’, ‘q’ and ‘ch’ as in the words ‘cat’, ‘duck’, ‘kid’, ‘Iraq’ and ‘chord’. |
| Digraph | A digraph is two letters which are used to represent one phoneme e.g. ‘sh’ ‘ai’ ‘er’. |
| Trigraph | A trigraph is three letters which are used to represent one phoneme e.g. ‘air’ ‘ear’ ‘igh’. |
| Blend | Blending is when you put individual phonemes together to read a word. |
| Segment | Segmenting is when you break up a word into it’s individual phonemes. |
| Tricky word | A word which cannot be ‘sounded out’ and read phonetically e.g. ‘the’ and ‘we’. |
| CVC word | Consonant – vowel – consonant e.g. ‘cat’, ‘rain’, ‘mop’ – 3 phonemes. |
READING
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing to practice at home. There are two types of reading books your child may bring home:
‘My Wow Book’ – This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently and will have read it five times at school with an adult. This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
A library book to share – Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together. In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!
We will provide information to parents and carers throughout the year to help you support your child’s phonic and reading development.