The Teaching of Phonics

We believe that the teaching of phonics is fundamental to the development of early reading skills. At Oxhey First School phonics is taught in a systematic way. It is taught in a highly structured programme of daily lessons across FS and KS1 in groups according to children’s phonic awareness and development. At Oxhey we follow the Sounds Write Scheme, providing a synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics.

“Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skillfully. They are taught how to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes and identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make. Children can then use this knowledge to ‘de-code’ new words that they hear or see. This is the first important step in learning to read.” DFE ‘Information for Parents’ 2013

Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skillfully. They are taught how to:
* Recognise the sounds that individual letters make
* Identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make-such as ‘sh’ or ‘oo’
* Blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word

Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children ‘de-code’ new words that they hear or see. This is the first important step in learning to read.

The children are taught to read words by blending, which means pushing all the sounds together to make a word.  The children are taught to spell words by segmenting, which means sounding out words and writing down the sounds they can hear.

By the end of Reception children are expected to be secure all single letter sounds and know some sounds which can be identified with two letters e.g. sh, ch, ng, th. By the end of year 1, most children at Oxhey should be secure in sounds up to Unit 23 of the Extended Code.