Phonics at Cherry Tree
Phonics teaching is a vital part of English. At Cherry Tree, we aim to teach children fluent word reading skills and provide a good foundation in spelling from the earliest opportunity.
Phonics teaching involves showing children the sounds of letters (not the letter names) and how these sounds can be blended together to make words. For example, the word ‘cat’ is a decodable word because the letter sounds can be blended together. c-a-t = cat.
How do we teach Phonics at Cherry Tree?
At Cherry Tree, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics as soon as they start school which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
By the end of EYFS the Early Years Framework sets out pupils can:
- Say a sound for each letter in the alphabet and at least 10 digraphs;
- Read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending;
- Read aloud simple sentences and books that are consistent with their phonic knowledge, including some common exception words.
During Year 1 the National Curriculum expectations are pupils can:
- apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words
- respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes
- read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have been taught
- read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
- read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings
- read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs
- read words with contractions [for example, I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s)
- read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words
- re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.
During Year 2 the National Curriculum expectations are pupils can:
- continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent
- read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes
- read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above read words containing common suffixes
- read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word read most words quickly and accurately, without overt sounding and blending, when they have been frequently encountered
- read aloud books closely matched to their improving phonic knowledge, sounding out unfamiliar words accurately, automatically and without undue hesitation
- re-read these books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.
What phonics do the children have at Cherry Tree?
Children at Cherry Tree are taught phonics daily in EYFS and KS1. Children across the school use their phonics daily to support them in their reading and writing in all key stages.
Activities are sent home weekly to support your child with their phonics.
Parents also have phonics by attending parent workshops, so you understand and are able to support your child at home.
Quotes from our children:
“ng for ring”
“I got 10 out of 10”
“I know all my sounds”
Useful Websites
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6wQQHo8uU
Information
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/