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At Chevening Primary School phonics is carefully planned and assessed using the recommended Government programme, ‘Letters
and Sounds’. Every child’s progress is tracked and monitored to ensure learning is focused and correctly matched to their
needs. Through short, sharp sessions the children have great fun learning effective strategies to help them read and spell
words.
The information that follows is designed to provide you with a clearer understanding of phonics, helping you to support your
child through using the same terminology and methods used at school.
Glossary
Phoneme - The smallest unit of sound. There are approximately 44 phonemes in English (it does depend on different accents). Phonemes can
be put together to make words. They are referred to at Chevening as sounds. Use the phoneme checker on the following website to listen
to the correct pronunciation of each. http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/phonemeChecker.html
Grapheme - A way of writing down a phoneme. Graphemes can be made up from 1 letter e.g. p, 2 letters e.g. sh, 3 letters e.g. igh or 4
letters e.g ough.
GPC - This is short for Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence. Knowing a GPC means being able to match a sound to the correct letters and
vice versa.
Digraph - A grapheme containing two letters that makes just one sound (phoneme).
Trigraph - A grapheme containing three letters that makes just one sound (phoneme).
Oral Blending - This involves hearing phonemes and being able to merge them together to make a word. Children need to develop this skill
before they will be able to blend written words.
Blending- This involves looking at a written word, looking at each grapheme and using knowledge of GPCs to work out which phoneme each
grapheme represents and then merging these phonemes together to make a word. This is the basis of reading.
Oral Segmenting - This is the process of hearing a whole word and then splitting it up into the phonemes that make it. Children need to
develop this skill before they will be able to segment words to spell them.
Segmenting - This involves hearing a word, splitting it up into the phonemes that make it, using knowledge of GPCs to work out which
graphemes represent those phonemes and then writing those graphemes down in the right order. This is the basis of spelling.
Phase 1 - Subject Knowledge
There are approximately 44 phonemes in English
Phase 1 is absolutely vital. It is the one phase that shouldn't
come to an end. These skills should continue to be developed
throughout KS1 and KS2. Phase 1 develops children’s abilities
to listen to, make, explore and talk about sounds.
Phase 4 - Subject Knowledge
The main challenge in this phase is to help children to blend
and segment words with adjacent consonants e.g. truck,
help. In these words both consonants can be heard when you
say the word aloud, making them different from a digraph
where there are two letters that make just one sound.
Phase 2 - Subject Knowledge
GPCs need to be introduced in systematic way.
Set 1 - s a t p
Set 2 - i n m d
Set 3 - g o c k
Set 4 - ck e u r
Set 5 - h b f ff l ll s ss
It is very important that you pronounce these phonemes
clearly and correctly using a pure sound. If you don't, children
will find it very difficult to blend them together. (See website
above)
When introducing GPCs, ensure you introduce them with the
sounds, pictures, and lots of practise of forming the letter. You
can form the letter with a finger in the air, on the palm of the
hand, on the back of another child, on a rough surface like
the floor. All these experiences will need to come before
trying to write the letter on a whiteboard or piece of paper.
Phase 5a (Weeks 1-4) - Subject Knowledge
New GPCs are introduced in the same way as in previous
phases. Five of these GPCs are known as split digraphs. They
are a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e. These used to be taught as magic
e but now it is recommended that children learn to recognise
these in the same way as other graphemes by simply
explaining that in these particular graphemes the two letters
work as a team although they aren't directly next to each
other. We imagine a link between the two letters that joins
them underneath and use our finger to trace it.
Phase 3 - Subject Knowledge
Phase 3 continues in the same way as Phase 2 and introduces
more GPCs. By the end of Phase 3 the children will know one
way of writing down each of the 44 phonemes.
Set 6 - j v w x
Set 7 - y z zz qu
Consonant digraphs - ch sh th ng
Vowel digraphs (and trigraphs) ai ee igh oa oo ar or ur ow oi
ear air ure er
The children continue to make CVC words. A CVC word is a
word with a consonant phoneme, a vowel phoneme and then
a consonant phoneme - it is not referring to letters. Therefore
hot, bed, boat and ship are all CVC words but cow and toy
are not.
Phase 5b (Weeks 4-7) - Subject Knowledge
These 3 weeks introduce the idea that some graphemes can
be pronounced in more than one way. E.g. the ‘ch’ can be
pronounced in each of these ways ‘check’, ‘chef’ and
‘school’. This is a vital lesson for children to learn and they
need to learn to apply it in their reading. It is modeled by
trying to read a word by sounding out the most obvious
phonemes then blending it together before trying an
alternative pronunciation. The children learn the best bet and
therefore the most common spelling pattern.
Phase 5c (Weeks 8-30)
This part of Phase 5 is all about learning that some phonemes
have more than one spelling.
Phase 6 - Subject Knowledge
Phase 6 reinforces much of the learning from Phase 5, helps
children to develop greater automaticity in reading and
begins to explore spelling rules and conventions e.g. adding ing and -ed.
Teaching methods
Blending words for reading
Children draw sound buttons underneath the words helping them to focus on the individual sounds in a word.
If it is a single letter phoneme a dot is drawn under. However if two or more letters are used then a line is used.
For example
Cat: all three sounds would have a dot drawn beneath them.
Fish: the f and i would have a dot drawn underneath and sh would be underlined.
Church :all three sounds would be underlined
Cake: dot is drawn underneath c and k but a link is made between the letters a and e. The children are taught to link
the split letters before dropping down to the letter in the middle, in a sweeping action.
Segmenting words for spelling
When writing an unfamiliar word children are encouraged to take a deep breath and puff out the sounds they hear in
the word they want to use.
The children say the word very slowly and as each sound is released a thumb or finger is raised.
The children then repeat the word and check they have got every sound they can hear.
The children then strike across their fingers saying the original word quickly.
They then write down the corresponding letter shapes, repeating the puffing process if forgotten.
Recommended websites
Phonics Play
http://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
This is a very popular website used in class due to its fun and cheeky games that match Letters and
Sounds. It also has printable resources.
Ictgames
www.ictgames.com/literacy.html
This has a great selection of games that link well with Letters and Sounds.
Oxford owl
www.oxfordowl.co.uk
A very useful website for parents and teachers. It contains up to 250 free e-books and fun games
and activities for the children to play.
Roy the Zebra
http://www.roythezebra.com/
A fantastic website with lots of fun games for all stages of phonics (some are only for paying
subscribers).
Words and Pictures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml
A clearly set out and easy to use website, well worth a look.
Northwood Phonics
http://www.northwood.org.uk/phonics
Some different games that we don’t play in school, but could be fun on a one to one basis.