Phonics

Phonics is all about sounds and is one method of teaching children how to read and write. There are 44 sounds in the English language, which are put together to form words. Some sounds are represented by one letter, like ‘t’, and some by two or more, like ‘ck’ in duck and ‘air’ in chair.

Children are taught the sounds first, then how to match them to letters, and finally how to use the letter sounds for reading and spelling. Synthetic phonics refers to ‘synthesising’, or blending, the sounds to read words. It’s based on the idea that children should sound out unknown words and not rely on their context to be able to read them.

At St. Saviour's, we have ongoing assessment of a child's reading ability which includes their phonic knowledge. 

Usually, at the end of Year 1, a statutory phonics check occurs to ensure that your child is working at a nationally agreed age appropriate standard.

The phonics screening check did not take place in Summer 2020 due to Covid-19. 

In 2020, all year 2 pupils took the Y1 phonics screening check in the Autumn term.

In 2021, all year 2 pupils took thephonics screening check in the second half of the Autumn term 2021.

In June 2022, the phonics screening check for current year 1's took place, as is usual practice.

Results from the phonics screening test is shared with parents/carers in the end of year report.

Practice makes perfect! - please support your child by listening them to read (at least 4 times a week), sharing other reading books at home - reading for pleasure -  and practice any words that have been sent home to sound out.  An excellent website for phonic games is Phonics play but please remember to choose the phonemes that they are learning or have learnt.

Read to your child - share books, stories, magazines to enrich their vocabulary and excite them to read more!