Phonics is the most effective way to teach young children to read. It involves teaching children the sounds (phonemes) that make up words. Children are taught the 44 phonemes in English using structured lessons moving from easiest to most complex sounds. Almost all children who receive good phonics instruction will learn to read words and go on to read fluently. Phonics instruction benefits all children, including those struggling with reading like those with dyslexia. Phonics is taught in 6 phases from nursery to Year 2, building up knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences and reading skills.

1. Rothwell C.of E. Primary
Academy
Teaching Children to Read using
the Phonic Approach

2. .
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. It is particularly helpful for children aged
5 to 7.
•Almost all children who receive good teaching of phonics will
learn the skills they need to tackle new words. They can then go
on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read
for enjoyment.
•Children who have been taught phonics also tend to read more
accurately than those taught using other methods, such as ‘look
and say’. This includes children who find learning learning to
read difficult, including those with Dyslexia.
DfE 2013

3. What is Phonics?
Words are made up from small units of sound called phonemes. Phonics
teaches children to be able to listen carefully and identify the phonemes
that make up each word. This helps children to learn to read words and
to spell words.
There are 44 phonemes in English.
We teach children to articulate the phonemes using the pure sound e.g.
‘sss’ not ‘suh’.

6. How many phonemes in these
words?
egg
mat
boat
sheep
church

7. Phase Phonic Knowledge and skills
Phase 1 (nursery) Activities are divided into seven aspects, including environmental
sounds, instrumental sounds, body sounds, rhythm and rhyme,
alliteration, voice sounds and finally oral blending and segmenting.
Phase 2 (Reception)
Up to 6 weeks
Learning 19 letters of the alphabet and one sound for each. Blending
sounds together to make words. Segmenting words into their separate
sounds. Beginning to read simple captions.
Phase 3 (Reception)
Up to 12 weeks
The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. Graphemes
such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by
single letters. Reading captions, sentences and questions. On
completion of this phase, children will have learnt the "simple code", i.e.
one grapheme for each phoneme in the English language.
Phase 4 (Reception)
4 to 6 weeks
No new grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught in this phase.
Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent
consonants e.g. jump, swim, clap.
Phase 5 (Year 1) Now we move on to the "complex code". Children learn more
graphemes for the phonemes which they already know, plus different
ways of pronouncing the graphemes they already know.
Phase 6 (Year 2 and beyond) Working on spelling, including prefixes and suffixes, doubling and
dropping letters etc.
Letters and Sounds is taught in 6 overlapping phases, outlined in the table below:-

8. Teaching tricky words
• Tricky words (camera words) are the
those words which cannot be sounded out
correctly using the Jolly Phonics sounds.
The only way these words can be read
and spelt correctly is by learning them and
having plenty of practice.
said go my the was

9. How do we know when children are
ready to learn to read?
Book Awareness
•Holds books the correct way up and turns pages.
•Handles books carefully.
•Chooses to select and ‘read’ books independently.
Awareness of Print
•Knows that print conveys meaning.
•Knows that, in English, print is read from left to right and top to bottom.
•Understands the concept of a word.
•Recognises own name.
•Recognises some familiar words.
Story Language
•Suggests how a story might end.
•Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.

10. Phonological Awareness
•Shows an awareness of alliteration e.g. can
hear when two or more objects begin with the
same sound.
•Recognises when two or more words rhyme.
•Hears and says the initial sound in words.
•Links some sounds to letters ( approximately
12)
•Blends cvc words e.g. knows that c-a-t says
cat.

11. Shared Reading
The children share an enlarged text with
the teacher. The text is usually slightly
above the children’s reading level. The
teacher models reading by pointing out
punctuation, key vocabulary etc.

12. Individual Reading
In Reception, initially, we listen to each child
read individually. This is an opportunity to
discuss the child’s ‘Home Reader’, check
children’s progress in learning high
frequency words and phonemes or share a
book of the child’s choice.

13. Home Reading Books
When the children reach a
readiness for reading stage,
your children will bring home a
Home Reading Book to share
with your child. This may be a
scheme book or a ‘real’ book.
You will also have a reading
diary to record any reading you
have done with your child.

14. The Early Learning Goal for
Reading
By the end of the Foundation Stage most
children should:-
Read and understand simple sentences.
Use phonic knowledge to decode regular
words and read them aloud accurately.
They also read some common irregular
words (tricky words). They demonstrate
understanding when talking with others
about what they have read.