Phonics at Bowlish

The Importance of Phonics
The teaching of phonics is a priority within the early years of school. Children experience daily phonic sessions where they follow a programme involving;

• Hearing and identifying sounds around them
• Learning the individual sounds (phonemes) that letters in the alphabet represent
• Learning phrases which help them to remember the letters and the sound that they represent
• Sounding out and then blending back together the individual letters from a word to read it
• Learning that some sounds are represented by more than one letter eg; sh, ch, th
• Using their ever developing phonic knowledge to read independently

The 'Read, write inc' resources and teaching methods are used to teach the children in phonic sessions.

A resource to help with the sounds (phonemes) taught can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3HRX2ywbog&feature=youtu.be

Phonic sessions are planned for by class teachers and taught by teachers and Teaching Assistants. Regular assessment ensures that children are placed in the correct phonics group according to their stage of learning.    A consistent format for the teaching of phonics, using the Read, Write, Inc programme ensures that there is clarity on what the children are working towards, this can be assessed regularly and then future provision supports the children in continuing to make progress.  

Phonics for Spelling

The teaching of phonics supports progress within the skills of spelling and writing.  Children are taught to spell words containing the phonemes (sounds) that they have been taught.  When children are writing in class they are encouraged to use the Read, Write Inc speed sounds charts to refer to phonemes that they have been taught, should recognise and should be able to use to support their phonetic attempts at spelling.  When children are confident with using phonics to decode for reading, they then take spellings home weekly to learn to spell key spellings that link to their phonic sessions.  Their spelling list also contains words that cannot be learnt using phonic skills.  These words are common exception words and need to be learnt using different strategies.  In Year 1 and 2 spelling in class and some spellings brought home link, to grammar sessions on adding suffixes and prefixes to words such as 'ing', 'ed', 'un' etc.  It is important that children are supported with any spellings that are sent home to learn because it is through regular activities that the children are able to secure their spelling skills.