Hugglescote Phonics Handbook
Hugglescote Phonics Handbook
Hugglescote Phonics Handbook
Intent
We are determined that every child will learn to read, regardless of their background,
needs or abilities.
Comprehension
At Hugglescote Community Primary School we value reading as a crucial life skill. By the
time children leave us, they read confidently for meaning and regularly enjoy reading for
pleasure. Our readers are equipped with the tools to tackle unfamiliar vocabulary. We
encourage our children to see themselves as readers for both pleasure and purpose.
Because we believe teaching every child to read is so important, we have a Reading
Leader who drives the early reading programme in our school. This person is highly skilled
at teaching phonics and reading, and they monitor and support our reading team, so
everyone teaches with fidelity to the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
programme.
Implementation
Home reading:
The decodable reading practice book is taken home to ensure success is shared
with the family.
o Reading for pleasure books also go home for parents to share and read to
children.
o We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised parents’ resources to
engage our families and share information about phonics, the benefits of
sharing books, how children learn to blend and other aspects of our provision,
both online and through workshops.
o Once children are at a stage where they have been taught all of the
graphemes, GPC’s and are fluent at reading they will choose a book from
our book banding system (orange upwards)
The school has a named Phonics Lead (Miss M Stretton) All staff are trained in the
teaching of phonics and have sufficient expertise in the teaching of phonics and reading
that ensures consistency from one year to the next.
Parents are encouraged to support their child’s learning in Early Reading by attending a
Parents Reading Evening prior to their children starting school in September each year
and in practising phonemes/tricky words and reading at home. In year 1, parents are
encouraged to attend a phonics meeting to set out expectations and ideas they can use
to support their children to blend to read words at home using ‘phonics home learning
packs’.
We record the graphemes children are being taught in their word/sound book in EYFS OR
in their home contact book in year 1 to inform parents of the graphemes being taught.
Impact
All children, including the weakest readers, make good progress to meet or exceed age-
related expectations.
All children are familiar with and enjoy listening to a wide range of stories, poems, rhymes
and non-fiction.
Assessment:
Assessment is used to monitor progress and to identify any child needing additional
support as soon as they need it.
Assessment for learning is used:
o daily within class to identify children needing Keep-up support
o weekly in the Review lesson to assess gaps, address these immediately and
secure fluency of GPCs, words and spellings.
Summative assessment is used:
o every six weeks to assess progress, to identify gaps in learning that need to be
addressed, to identify any children needing additional support and to plan
the Keep-up support that they need.
o by SLT and scrutinised through the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
assessment tracker, to narrow attainment gaps between different groups of
children and so that any additional support for teachers can be put into
place.
o Phonics tracker is used to identify any gaps in year one and year two and
homework is sent home with the identified graphemes that children need to
learn or continue to practise.
Statutory assessment:
Children in Year 1 sit the Phonics Screening Check. Any child not passing the check
re-sits it in Year 2.
To support the children with blending sounds orally we use Fingers. Fingers represent the
sounds and we move our hand to blend when we say the word.
We also use a range of phonics play resources and games to teach reading and spelling.
A use the Little Wandle grapheme cards and word flash cards; some have sound buttons
and some are plain. We use green and red words for decodable and non-decodable
words.
We use mnemonics and phrases from the Little Wandle scheme when teaching
graphemes. We teach the letter names alongside this so children can distinguish between
graphemes when spelling.
Planning
All planning throughout EYFS, KS1 and into KS2 consists of this structure – revisit and review,
teach and practise, practise apply and assess. Our plans follow the weekly planning given
in Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. An example of our planning is shown below.
Assessment
Year 1 Phonics Test
The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is designed to indicate the progress of children in
phonic decoding/reading skills. The phonics screening check consists of 20 real words and
20 silly or ‘pseudo-words’. A silly or pseudo word is a made up word which does not make
sense e.g.’tomp’. The pseudo words are meant to create a pure test of phonics as they
will be new to all children.
The phonics screening check will be administered by the class teacher with one child at a
time. There is no time limit for the test, but it is expected to take ten minutes per child.
Should children struggle with the phonics check they will be required to take it again in
Year 2. We allow children to use sound buttons if they wish to.
In year 1 the children take a previous phonics screening every half term. Their results are
given to the reading lead who tracks their progress. The children who did not pass the
screening in year 1 continue to be assessed as they were in year 1 while in year 2. When
the children take the screenings, they are encouraged to draw the sound buttons if they
choose too. They are also taught to look for the digraph first.
All staff are encouraged to jot down quick notes about any problems that particular
children are having or any GPCs that lots of children are struggling with. By doing this we
can make sure that we can build extra support into future planning.
If children in year 2 are not able to access phonics because of a particular learning need
then advise from our SENDCo is provided. Sessions provided may include:
Keep up sessions
Extra phonics lessons
Precision teaching
Extra 1:1 Reading
SEN advice
Children who do not pass the Phonics Screen in Y2 will continue with Phonics in Y3. They
will continue to take the screen at the end of the year to monitor progress.
Discrete daily phonics teaching continues for some KS2 pupils that do not meet the
required standard by the end of KS1. Continued understanding of spelling rules and
patterns are explored through weekly spelling work which encourages pupils to find links
between families of words and to explore their common meanings. Spelling conventions
and widening vocabulary are reinforced during daily reading and writing.
Home-School Link
We believe that it is of great importance to create positive links with our parents. We provide
a variety of open mornings and informative presentations about phonics teaching and
learning.
We also provide sound/letter books in EYFS to support children in the learning of phonics at
home. This includes decodable reading practise books and a reading for pleasure book.
In year 1 we provide a home school link book with all the relevant sound/letter knowledge
which allows parents to monitor their children’s’ progress and the sounds they are learning.
This pack provides all the resources children need to practise the skills to pass the phonics
screening test. In addition to this; children are given a common exception card/flick book
to practise reading GPC’s. This is continued in year 2 if needed.
We encourage parents to read daily with their children and practise the
phonemes/graphemes and reading tricky/CEW with fluency.
Two or more consonants that come together in a word without any intervening vowel or
vowels (for example, ‘d-r’ in ‘drop’, ‘s-t-r’ in ‘strap’). Adjacent consonants do not
constitute a discrete unit of sound and are read by blending the individual consonant
phonemes involved.
Alien words
The relationship between the sounds that can be identified in speech (phonemes) and
the letters used to represent them in writing (graphemes).
Alternative pronunciation
A different way of pronouncing a grapheme. For example, the letters ‘ow’ can represent
the sounds /ow/ as in ‘crown’ and /oa/ as in ‘snow’.
Alternative spelling
A different way of spelling a phoneme. For example, the sound /w/ can be represented
inwriting by ‘w’ as in ‘wave’ and ‘wh’ as in ‘what’.
Blend
To combine individual phonemes into a whole word, working all the way through from left
to right. Once the GPCs involved have been learned, blending is the key process involved
in reading words effectively. It is a skill that needs extensive practice. Practice in oral
blending is very helpful, both before and during the process of learning to read. It is
important to understand that blending sounds into a word is not simply a matter of saying
them more quickly, nor of mixing them together like paint. Phonemes need to be joined
into one continuous stream of sound to make a spoken word. Extensive practice,
following teacher modelling, is the key.
Catchphrase
A type of mnemonic in the form of a memorable (often funny) phrase. Catchphrases are
generally used in this programme to help children remember some of the later GPCs
learned, where a picture alone might not give enough of a ‘hook’.
Chunk it up
To break up a longer word and read it one part (chunk) at a time, to avoid being
overwhelmed and to ease the process of blending.
Compound word
A word made by joining two individual words together, for example, ‘houseboat’ is
‘house’+ ‘boat’.
Digraph
A grapheme using two letters to represent one phoneme. With children, we frequently
reinforce it with the mantra ‘two letters, one sound’. At the appropriate stage, it is useful
for children to learn to use the term and to understand what it means.
Fluency
The ability to read accurately with speed and expression. Fluent readers read words
automatically without needing to decode. It is at this point that we see them able to
focus on comprehension and make sense of what is being read.
Formation phrase
A memorable phrase used to support the children in forming the letter correctly using
directional vocabulary, such as ‘down’, ‘up’, ‘across’ and ‘over’.
Under the snake’s chin, slide down and round its tail.
GPC
A letter or group of letters used to represent a particular phoneme when writing. With
children, we sometimes call this ‘a sound written down’, although, as with ‘phoneme’, it is
helpful for children to learn to use the correct term from the beginning. The way
graphemes are used to represent phonemes in our written language is known as the
‘alphabetic code’.
Group reading practice
A group reading session where the children read alongside an adult from book
containing known GPCs and tricky words, and have the opportunity to apply and
practise their knowledge. The children should be able to access these books with 90%
accuracy. (Also known as ‘teaching reading with books’.)
Grow the code
To systematically and incrementally teach additional GPCs so that the range of words
children can read continually extends.
Homograph
Homographs are words that have the same spelling but different meanings, for example,
‘pen’ (writing implement) and ‘pen’ (animal enclosure).
Homophone
Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different spellings or
meanings, for example, ‘prey’ and ‘pray’.
Mnemonic
A word with more than one syllable. Syllables are easy to recognise when words are
spoken, but hard to distinguish in printed words until you know how to say them. The best
way for children to learn to recognise syllables is to count (or clap) them when reciting
known rhymes, songs, and so on.
Oral blending
A technique for the early practice of blending. The teacher articulates each phoneme in
a word separately, in order, and children respond by saying the whole word aloud.
Alternatively, they can be asked to blend the word silently and show they have done so
by responding with some action, for example, touching their head, after the teacher has
pronounced the separate phonemes in the word ‘head’. Such practice is valuable both
before and during the early stages of learning to read. (Also known as ‘sound-talk’.)
Orthographic store
Children learn to read by first sounding and blending words, and then reading them
‘straight off’, without overt sounding and blending. Once this has been practised
sufficiently, recognition of these words becomes automatic and they are held as an
orthographic store in a highly specialised area of the brain that expert neurologist
Stanislas Dehaene calls ‘the brain’s letterbox’. This orthographic store, and the
instantaneous recall it enables, is the basis of fluent reading. It is important to remember
that the orthographic store is most effectively built up through extensive practice of the
sounding–blending–reading process, which establishes the necessary neural pathways,
not through trying to memorise countless whole words.
Overt blending aloud
Sound-talking aloud every phoneme in turn before blending them together to form the
word.
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that can be identified in words. We sometimes simply call this a
‘sound’, although it is helpful for children to use the term ‘phoneme’ from the beginning
of our programme. (Note: We do not usually notice discrete sounds in words. We
deliberately separate them out so that children can learn how our writing–reading system
works. Children are first helped to identify the separate sounds in words through oral
blending and segmenting, and this is reinforced as they begin to work through our
systematic synthetic phonics programme.)
Phonetically plausible
A technique for reinforcing the process of sounding and blending involving the teacher
pointing to each phoneme in a word, in sequence from left to right, and then sweeping a
finger below the word, again from left to right, to indicate the blending. It can be used
with the teacher and/or children vocalising each stage, or as a reinforcement to silent
sounding and blending as children become more confident.
Prefix
The rhythmic and intonational aspect of speech that manifests as expressive reading. It
comprises timing, phrasing and intonation, and helps to convey meaning and add‘life’ to
reading.
Pseudo-words
Simple, phonetically plausible ‘words’ that don’t actually occur in the English language;
used (as in the Phonics screening check) to assess whether a child can correctly read a
word they haven’t seen before, using phonic decoding; use should be confined to
assessment.
Reading
The process of looking at written symbols and getting meaning from them – making
meaning from print.
Regional pronunciation
The first part of the lesson where the core purpose is to activate prior knowledge –
bringing prior learning to the forefront of the children’s minds and promoting the
transference of working memory into long-term memory.
Segment
To identify each of the individual phonemes in a word, working all the way through from
left to right. This is an important first stage of writing (spelling) a word but needs to be
practised orally first. Counting the phonemes is often helpful in reinforcing this process.
Sound button
A graphic device to help children recognise the separate phonemes in a printed word.
Sound buttons can be used as a support in the early stages of learning. For each word, a
dot is placed under any single-letter grapheme and a short horizontal line under the
group of letters that form a digraph or trigraph, as shown below.
Sound talk
Fluent reading of previously read words containing known GPCs that are read without
blending.
Split vowel digraph
A digraph representing a vowel sound where its two letters are split by an intervening
consonant (for example, ‘a_e’ in ‘take’). Despite having a consonant in between them,
the two letters involved (here ‘a’ and ‘e’) still count as one digraph, making one sound.
The vowel sound is pronounced at the position of the first of the two letters of the digraph
(that is, in the middle of ‘take’). At early learning stages, a split digraph is often highlighted
with a short line joining the two halves of the digraph above the intervening consonant, as
shown below.
Suffix
A recognisable unit of language added to the end of a word to change its form, such as
the tense of a verb. For example, ‘playing’ is ‘play’ + ‘–ing’, so ‘–ing’ is the suffix. Examples
of other common suffixes are ‘–er’, ‘–ed’, ‘–est’.
Tap in/tapping in
The process by which the teacher listens in to individual children as they are engaged in
reading their book during group reading practice.
Tricky words
A grapheme using three letters to represent one phoneme. With children, we frequently
reinforce it with the mantra ‘three letters, one sound’. At the appropriate stage, it is useful
for children to learn to use the term and to understand what it means.
Vocabulary
All of the words that a person knows and uses within their language.
Vowel sound
Although we have five vowel letters in English, each one can be pronounced in different
ways and there are, therefore, far more than five vowel phonemes (vowel sounds). Each
one has a short vowel form, with a fairly staccato pronunciation; these are the vowel
sounds heard, for example, in ‘hat’, ‘bed’, ‘big’, ‘hot’ and ‘tub’. Each also has a more
elongated pronunciation, the long vowel form heard, for example, in ‘play’, ‘seed’,
‘high’,‘blow’ and ‘tube’. There are, additionally, more complex vowel forms, for example,
those heard in ‘bear’ and ‘farm’. Graphemes for short vowel phonemes are the easiest to
learn and are taught first. Most GPCs for long vowels involve digraphs or trigraphs and are
taught later, generally in Phase 5.
Whisper blending
An intermediary stage that can help children bridge the gap between sounding and
blending aloud and doing the process silently ‘in their head’.