Phonics guide for parents and carers

At BPS phonics is taught everyday with all Early Years and KS1 children. Further phonics support is given to any KS2 pupils who require it. We use the Unlocking Letters and Sounds phonics programme. There are five phonics phases that your child will work through from their time in Reception to Year 2.

We use the synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory. Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.

The five basic skills for reading and writing are:

1. Learning the letter sounds
2. Learning letter formation
3. Blending
4. Identifying sounds in words
5. Spelling the common exception words
    

Learning the Letter Sounds

We teach the 42 main sounds of English, not just the alphabet. The sounds are in seven groups. Single sounds are called phonemes. Some sounds are written with two letters, such as 'ee' and 'or'. These are called digraphs. Some sounds are written with three letters, such as 'igh' and 'ear', these are called trigraphs.

Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. Children should learn each letter by its sound. For example, the letter a should be called 'a' (as in ant) not ai (as in aim). Similarly, the letter 'n' should be nn (as in net), not en. This will help in blending.  We don’t introduce the letters in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters.

As the children move through Year One, they will learn new ways of writing sounds they have already learned in Reception. A written representation of a phoneme is called a grapheme. For example, the children will have already learned 'ai' in Reception. In Year One they will learn 'ay' and 'a_e'. These are the same phonemes but different graphemes. 

All children in Year One will sit the statutory phonics screening check in June. They will be expected to decode and blend a collection of words, some of which are real and some are pseudo (nonsense) words. 

As part of all phonics lessons, the children will learn how to read and spell Common Exception Words (CEW). These are generally words that we can't sound out and have to recognise by sight. 
 

Learning Letter Formation

The pencil should be held in the ‘dynamic tripod’ grip between the thumb and first two fingers. If a child’s hold starts incorrectly, it is very difficult to correct later on. In time a child will need to learn joined-up (cursive) writing as it helps with the fluency of writing and improves spelling. We follow the Unlocking Letters and Sounds patters which are recited to the children to help them remember formation.