What is Phonics all about?

Phonics is a systematic way of teaching children to read simple words. It is very different to how I remember being taught at school but in my experience it is very effective.

When teaching phonics children are introduced to letters as sounds rather than letter names. So instead of saying that cat is spelt cat (see, aye, tee) children are taught to hear the sound that the letter makes so would say c-a-t (ceh-ahh-teh).

Phonics is taught in a specific sequence to ensure that teaching builds on previous learning and skills. This means that children do not get taught the letter sounds in alphabetical order. Instead they are taught the sounds in an order that allows them to build and read simple words quickly. Learning 's', 'a' and 't' first means children can read words like 'sat', 'at', and 'as', after learning just three sounds. If taught in alphabetical order they would not be able to make or read words so quickly.

So what are the phases all about? The Department for Education created a very popular and successful phonics guidance document in 2007 called 'Letters and Sounds.' This programme is still very popular in schools as can be very effective when used as a planning guide. Letters and Sounds is divided into 6 sections of learning (phases) and the phases are designed to build upon each other. There are many different phonics schemes that different settings use. You may have heard of others such as Jolly Phonics and Read Write Inc to name a few. These schemes teach the phonemes (sounds) in a slightly different order and each have a slightly different approach. I have taught using all three of the above approaches and can honestly say that they all work well when taught well and all rely on the same basic phonic skills. The games, flashcards and activity idea cards that we sell can be used to enhance phonics learning whichever scheme your child follows at school, however we chose to link them to the sequence from Letters and Sounds to ensure that the ideas and activities build upon previous skills. This is why some resources have a phase number on the pack.

You may be aware that the government are planning to update their phonics guidance and make some key changes to the essential core criteria for phonics programs. From what I have read so far these sound like really positive changes and we will ensure that we keep our resources up to date to meet any new criteria that is introduced. The important thing to note is that the fundamentals of phonics are not being changed and the learning activities that you are currently doing at home to support your child will still have a positive impact and help them to progress. Children will still be taught letter sounds in either the same or a very similar sequence. The skills of blending and segmenting to read and spell (see phonics Jargon post), and the listening and attention skills that we promote in our Phase 1 and Phase 2 activity cards, will always be essential skills for young children to gain in order to be successful in any future phonics programme