Phonics
How is Phonics taught at Cookley Sebright Primary School?
At Cookley, Jolly Phonics is our chosen phonics scheme. The sequence of learning, beginning in Reception, is fast-paced and has the highest expectations of what children can achieve. Its traditional, no-frills approach ensures that children are clear about the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (the way the sounds are written) that they need to learn and provides them with multiple opportunities to read and write these on a daily basis.
What order are the letter sounds taught in?
The chart below demonstrates how this learning is structured. The red sounds (made up of 7 groups) are taught to Reception children throughout the Autumn Term so that they have a wealth of reading material available to them to practise and apply their learning. Following this, the pace of learning new sounds slows and children learn alternative ways of writing down some of the letter sounds they already know. These are detailed in the yellow, green, blue and purple rows of sounds. It is important to note that the order of the sounds taught in Jolly Phonics differs from the order laid out in other phonics programmes. This is normal and every scheme differs slightly but we ask that you use the recommended resources provided by school so that children do not get confused reading sounds they have not yet been taught.
What are the five basic skills of Jolly Phonics?
These are the five basic skills of Jolly Phonics.
1) Learning, and crucially remembering the letter sounds is crucially important but this alone will not be sufficient for effective and successful reading and writing.
2) Alongside this, learning the accurate letter formation is taught. This means that right from the start of the programme, children can begin to write words, phrases and eventually sentences using the sounds that they know.
3) Blending
Blending is another extremely important skill. The ability to recognise individual sounds and then 'run them' together to read words takes deliberate and consistent practice on a daily basis. The more children blend the same word, the quicker it becomes known and the fluency of reading individual words and sentences increases. As their vocabulary grows, children become less reliant on this skill and will be able to read words at sight.
4) Identifying the sounds in words
Being able to identify the sounds in words is another critical skill. For example being able to hear the individual sounds /s/ /u/ /n/ in the word 'sun' means that there is far more chance that spelling will be accurate. Children practise this skill through dictation where the teacher will say sounds, words and then progress to sentences and the children have to write theses down accurately. This also helps with developing sentence structure and vocabulary without the need for the children to generate their own ideas. When they come to being more independent in their writing lessons, the children have a much wider variety of structures to choose from.
5) Tricky Words
Alongside learning words that are phonetically regular and can be broken down into sounds that the children know well, there are also words that do not follow the same straightforward patterns. We call these words 'tricky words'. Whilst some of the sounds will be familiar to the children, there will be a 'tricky bit' which makes the words more difficult to read. This could be a part of the word that includes a letter sound that the children have not yet been taught or something that does not follow the regular patterns. Children will have lots of practice reading and spelling these words at sight and they will be taught to the children in a slightly different way. Below is a chart which shows the order in which the tricky words are taught.
What reading books are sent home when children are learning their phonics?
When children are first learning to read, it can be challenging and so it is vitally important that they read books that contain the sounds and tricky words that they know. Teachers and Teaching Assistants are well-trained in selecting the books that match to the sounds children know and these books are organised separately to the class library in school. Each book will also have a selection of tricky words which are more often than not printed in the front of each book. We have purchased every decodable reader that Jolly Phonics has published and organised our existing book stock so that there is a variety of reading materials for the children to work through and enjoy. This includes a balance of fiction and non-fiction titles.
Alongside the decodable readers that the children will bring home, children may have a selection of individual word cards that they can use to practise their skills outside of a book which for less confident readers may be a little overwhelming. These should be used in a variety of creative ways which class teachers will share with you.
Children will also bring home a book to be shared and enjoyed with an adult. These books are not for reading independently and will contain many sounds and words that children do not know. Their purpose if to build a love of books and healthy habits when it comes to reading.