At Kingsfield First School it is essential that our approach to teaching phonics and reading is accessible to all learners, regardless of background and that it promotes and fosters a life-long love of reading from the very beginning of their school journey.
At Kingsfield First School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school.
Download our Parent Information PowerPoint that was shared with all EYFS and Year 1 parents. Or a summary of this information can be found in the electronic version of parent handout.
What is phonics?
“Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. 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 skilfully. 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 ‘decode’ 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.
