Phonics: Summary
Please see the Parents' Presentation all about the delivery of Phonics via the ELS Essential Letters and Sounds) scheme and how our school reading books have been matched to this.
Parents' Phonics Presentation
Please see the attached documents with all of the graphemes, associated images and the mnemonics.
The following document shows how each and every reading book is matched to the phonemes that have been taught and secured in Phonics lessons. It also includes the HRSW (Harder to Read and Spell Words) taught within each set. Children will be moved up reading book sets once the sounds have been taught in school and your child has been assessed as knowing them.
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read skillfully. They are taught how to:
- recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes;
- identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make – such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’; and
- blend those sounds together from left to right to make a word.
Children can then use this knowledge to ‘decode’ new words that they see or hear. This is the first important step to learning to read.
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 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 difficult to read, for example those who have dyslexia.