Phonics in EYFS
Phonics teaching in Nursery focuses on key pre reading skills and building blocks needed for future phonics learning. Skills such as the ability to listen, talk about and hear the difference between sounds in the environment, instrumental sounds and voice sounds, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm and oral blending & segmenting. We teach these skills using a range of games, songs, rhymes, activities and resources, while keeping it as fun and interactive as possible.
In Reception, children continue to develop these skills at a higher level. Children do not have to master all these strands before they start learning the sounds and letters but they are essential for future success. Children have daily phonics lesson 20 minutes a day based on the Read Write Inc Phonics Scheme, which is a comprehensive, synthetic phonics programme that teaches children how to read.
Children in Reception are taught in small groups based on their developing phonological knowledge. Through learning phonics, children are working towards meeting the Early Learning Goals for reading and writing (‘Literacy’ area of learning’).
Learning environments support children’s development of phonological awareness enabling them to practice and apply these skills across all areas of the curriculum.
KS1 Phonics
At Altmore, we use a synthetic phonics programme called Read Write Inc to teach reading to teach reading and writing to children. In EYFS and KS1 students participate in daily phonics lessons for 25 minutes a day. Children in EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 are taught is small groups based on their developing phonological knowledge. During the phonics sessions, children taught the key skills to decode and segment words to support their reading and writing. This is to support the children to read, spell and write independently.
In Key Stage 1, once children have completed the RWI Phonics programmes and children have become confident and fluent readers, we begin to further develop their comprehension skills using reciprocal reading strategies using a range of adventurous and classical texts from the CLPE.
Useful websites
Understanding Phonics
How to say the sounds
Sheila’s Phonics Playlist – a playlist of different set 1, 2 and 3 sounds
Balloon Phonics
Phonics Play – Picnic Pluto
Cbeebies Alphablocks