What is Phonics?

Phonics is a way of teaching children to read. They are taught how to: 

• Recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes 
• Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make eg sh and oo 
• Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word 
• Children can then use this knowledge to segment and blend new words that they hear or see. 

Why Phonics? 

Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young children to read.

 What is the phonics screening check? 

As you may already know  the government introduced a phonics screening check at the end of Y1. This will further inform our continual assessment of the children’s phonic knowledge and the results of the check will be shared with parents/carers in the end of year report. 

It comprises a list of 40 words that children read one-to-one with a teacher. The list is a combination of both real and ‘alien’ words which rely purely on using phonics to decode. The ‘alien’ words are nonsense words and will be shown with a picture of an imaginary creature eg sturg, zom 

We will carry out the check in the week commencing 8th June 2020