Phonics

Many parents ask for more information about how we teach phonics and reading at our school, so we have created some information files that may be useful to you.

There is an overwhelming amount of information available online, and many tweaks and updates are often added as new, improved ways are found - so phonics can be a tricky subject to grasp! 

The attached documents have been collated from different sources to summarise the information we think will be most useful. (Click on the blue titles to access the documents.) Here is an overview to help you decide which would be most useful for you;

Phonics at home PowerPoint - this information is from the phonics programme we currently use, Read Write Inc (also known as Ruth Miskin phonics), and gives an overview of what phonics is and what some of the terms mean, as well as some useful web links at the end. It gives a lot of detail for those who wish to delve a little deeper into how phonics is taught. 

Phonics red and green words - this document is a useful list of words the children learn. You can see how the green words get progressively harder as you read through them. In class, we do not teach them all at once, but work our way through them systematically, introducing new sounds and words each day, working at the child's pace. Sometimes, we use alternative green words that are relevant to the class (i.e. we may create our own that include sounds we want them to practise). You may not need all of these words for your child but we have included this

document as it can be useful to print and cut out some of the words to use as flash cards if you wish to. 

Explanation of sounds  - this is a written description of how the sounds should be pronounced and has been updated to include the new sounds and phrases we now use. It is a simple reference document if you just want to focus on learning the sounds. Alternatively, you can hear the sounds on the videos accessed via the link. 

Top ten tips for reading stories to your child - a lovely one page information sheet with some nice, simple ideas to use at home.

In addition to the above documents, click here for a link to the Oxford Owl website. Many parents tell us they prefer to use the videos to help learn and practise the sounds, and there are some excellent, easy to follow videos on the Oxford Owl website (which is linked to Read Write Inc). We highly recommend taking a look! We also like to use Mr Thorne's videos - he uses a puppet giraffe called Geraldine to explain and explore the sounds and words. These videos can easily be found on YouTube, as well as many others.