Information about how we teach phonics

When your child first starts to read it is crucial that they learn:

• the sounds (phonemes) represented by an individual written letter or groups of written letters (graphemes)
• how to blend (synthesise) the sounds together to make words.

At Martin Primary School all children in Reception and Year 1 are taught phonics through a systematic, synthetic approach, Essential Letters and Sounds, which builds on the important foundations established in Nursery.  Dedicated time is timetabled each day to the teaching of phonics during which the children are taught to recognise the sounds and to put them together, or ‘sound blend’ them, into words for reading.

In Year 2, all children have dedicated time each day to learn Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS) and phonics skills are further reinforced during this time.  Intervention programmes take place in Year 2 and Key Stage 2 for those children yet to master their phonics knowledge.

Reading opens the door to learning and our aim is to ensure that all our children  have a love of reading. As well as phonics lessons the children are exposed to a rich variety of quality texts and stories to develop their love of stories and storytelling.

What you can do to support your child:

• read with them and to them every day
• show them you enjoy books and sometimes model ‘sounding out’ words
• take them to the library and expose them to a rich variety of quality book
• tell them stories and help them make up stories
• practise their speed sounds with them and tell them to ‘Fred Talk’ new words that they find hard to read
• give plenty of praise for effort as well as the final outcome.

Phonics workshops, which are designed to enable parents/carers help and support their children at home, are held regularly at school so please look out for them and add them to your diary.

Further information about the sequence of teaching and the rhymes we use to help the children remember phonics can be found in the links below.