Teaching Phonics at Malcolm Sargent School

1. Teaching Phonics at Malcolm Sargent School Inspiring Children, Learning Together

2. What is phonics? Important Vocabulary: • Phoneme: A sound that is made by a letter or group of letters • Grapheme: The letter written down • Digraph: Two letters that make one sound. • Trigraph: Three letters that make one sound. A method of teaching people to read by grouping sounds together.

3. How is Letters & Sounds taught at Malcolm Sargent? Systematic Synthetic Phonics Systematic phonics– regular, discrete, explicit phonics teaching in an agreed and rational sequence Synthetic phonics – refers to the process of blending, or synthesising the individual sounds in the word together. They learn to say individual letter sounds in the order that they appear in a word. It teaches children to segment for spelling. Un systematic phonics is taught incidentally on the basis of need.

4. How is Letters & Sounds taught at Malcolm Sargent? Taught twice daily in the morning and afternoon for 15 minute sessions. Children of all abilities are kept together. This ensures all children are exposed to the highest level (phase 5) Sessions are designed so that all children can achieve their expected level ( securely working on phase 3 by end of Foundation, Phase 5 by end of year 1 and Phase 6 by end of year 2)

5. What elements make up a phonics lesson? Through all the year groups the same key elements can be found in a phonics session. • There is a review of previously learned phonemes. • New sounds are blended to read words • Words are segmented to help with spelling • There is a review/teaching of tricky/high frequency words. • There is a focus on alphabet and naming letter • Apply - Share a big book

6. How can you help? It is important to…….. • Use hands very precisely, to illustrate the idea of blending and segmenting. • Using mnemonics to help them memorise letters. • Using handwriting as a kinaesthetic activity introduced early. • Using sound buttons to help blend • Matching learning to children’s attainment. • Be very clear in the articulation of phonemes.

7. Foundation Stage(Phases 1-3) We teach ‘satpin’ take the order in which we teach the letters from ‘Letters and Sounds’ Review first before introducing weekly sounds Blend Segment Alphabet Apply - Share a big book

8. Year 1(Phases 3-5) Letter names Review of previously learned phonemes Learn new phonemes Blending new phonemes Segmenting words containing new phonemes Apply - Share a big book

9. Year 2(Phases 5-6) There is a short activity helping children to become familiar with alphabetical order. There is a review of all the phonemes learned previously New phonemes are introduced and blended as well as a spelling rule (Phase 6) Word are segmented for spelling High frequency words are reviewed A big book is read to help children to apply knowledge

10. Assessment: The National Phonics Screening Check A national test at the end of year 1 Designed to test pupil’s ability to decode and blend words phonetically 40 words – 20 real words and 20 pseudo words Pseudo words – gleb sprant (Can only be read phonetically) Pass mark is 80% (32/40) Pupils who do not passed are tested again at the end of year 2