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Phonics

At Barnes Farm Primary School, we provide pupils with a clear understanding of how the alphabet works for reading and spelling. 

Using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised scheme, we enable our pupils to become fluent and confident readers with a strong phonological awareness whilst providing opportunities for repetition and consolidation so that reading, and spelling become automatic.

From Reception, we teach phonics in a variety of ways such as whole class direct instruction, small group exploration of individual sounds, graphemes, spelling families, High Frequency Words and Common Exception Words. We follow the Letters and Sounds structure.

Reception

Twice daily, our pupils in our EYFS classrooms will have a phonics lesson which follow a range of strategies. 

In Phase 1 pupils will be taught to:

  • Develop speaking and listening skills
  • Develop language and vocabulary
  • Explore environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, body percussion, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration, voice sounds, oral blending and segmenting
  • Develop curiosity about letters and sounds using fun activities

In Phase 2 and 3 pupils will be taught:

  • Phase 2 - Nineteen sounds including their sound and name
  • To segment and blend letters including VC and CVC words
  • To read some tricky words (words which are not phonetically decodable)
  • To read two syllable words and simple captions
  • Phase 3 – Another 25 graphemes
  • To use their blending and segmenting knowledge when reading and spelling
  • To read more tricky words and begin to spell them

Year 1

As the children progress into Year 1, they have two fifteen minute phonic sessions daily. Pupils will progress to Phase 4 and 5 but also recap previous phases where necessary. 

In Phase 4 and 5, pupils will be taught:

  • Phase 4 – consolidate knowledge of graphemes, segmenting and blending
  • To read and spell words with adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words
  • Phase 5 – new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for the graphemes they already know
  • To select the correct graphemes to represent phonemes when spelling
  • In Reception, ‘Word Worms’ are sent home to consolidate and practise with parents and carers. This will also apply to individual pupils in Year 1 and 2 if appropriate.

Year 2

By the time children go up to Year 2 most will know all sounds and graphemes up to Phase 5 so the focus turns to spelling families such as words with the medial vowel sound - 'ee' 'ough' and then progress onto words with prefixes and suffixes e.g. '...ness', '...ful', 'in....', 'un....'. Consolidation of all phases is taught as well as the Year 2 Common Exception Word list.

 

Phonics is taught using the Little Wandle phonics scheme. The website has lots of helpful information about supporting phonics at home.

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ 

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