Phonics
At Woolpit Primary Academy, we teach phonics through the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' SSP. Phonics is taught twice daily for Years Reception - Year 1. Once children pass the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, and are confident to write phonetically and read with fluency then they move on from Phonics lessons to further reading and spelling lessons. Any children who have not passed the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, will continue Phonics lessons through small group / 1:1 intervention.
We are passionate about children swiftly becoming fluent, confident readers, who love enjoying books. We also want our phonics teaching to enable all children to be writers, who take pride in their writing.
Support for Phonics
These three videos show you how to pronounce the sounds. Notice how the children don’t add an ‘uh’ sound at the end, so they say: ‘t’ not ‘tuh’.
Phase 2 Sounds Taught in Reception Autumn 1
Phase 2 sounds learnt in Reception Autumn 2
Phase 3 Sounds Taught in Reception Spring 1
These videos show how we teach blending, alien words and tricky words.
Blending - this is hearing the sounds in a word and 'pushing them together' to make a word, for example hearing c-a-t and understanding this is 'cat.
Alien words - these are words that have no meaning / are nonsense words. We get children to read these words in Year 1 to test that children can apply their phonic skills to reading anything. These words make up 50% of the Phonic Screening Check in Year 1.
Tricky words - these are words which cannot yet be sounded out by the children at their phonic stage. For example, one of the first tricky words we teach is the tricky word 'the'. If children tried to sound it out they would say 't-h-e' and this wouldn't blend to make the word 'the'. Therefore we teach these as 'whole-words' that they just need to remember.
Supporting your child with reading
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.
There are two types of reading book that your child may bring home:
A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.
This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.
Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
We expect children to have this book for a week, reading it 5 times in the week. For every read, mark your child's reading worm with your initials. After 25 reads your child will receive a certificate. Each certificate is a different colour, so we challenge you to 'Read the Rainbow'
A sharing book. Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.
In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen for you to enjoy together.
Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!
