Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. It is a first step on the road to reading.
Children are taught to:
- Recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes.
- Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make.
- Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word.
In Foundation daily phonics is taught through Jolly Phonics using the 4-part lesson structure:
Revise – briefly practice what has been taught the previous day.
Teach – new phoneme/grapheme, blending and segmenting skills.
Practise – what has been taught.
Apply – link the skill to reading or writing.
This method continues throughout KS1 using the progressive phases of Letters and Sounds. Children are assessed regularly using a diagnostic spelling test to assess individual needs.
In KS2, a progressive spelling programme, linked to Letters and Spelling Bank is in place to support the teaching of spelling.