Phonics in KS1

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Phonics in Key Stage 1

Children in KS1 receive daily phonics teaching which involves practicing previously taught sounds, learning a new sound, reading and writing using the new sound and then an activity which allows them to apply all their reading and writing skills.

Phase 5

Children will learn some new graphemes for reading. They will also be taught alternative pronunciations for known graphemes. For example, they have already learned ow as in cow and will now learn ow as in blow.

In addition, they will learn alternative spellings for known phonemes. For example, the sound /igh/ has been learned as the grapheme igh as in ‘night’, but can also be spelled y, ie, and i-e.

New graphemes for reading:
ay – day, play, crayon
ou – cloud, sound, about
ie – pie, tie, cried
ea – sea, meat, read
oy – toy, enjoy, boy
ir – bird, shirt, first
ue – blue, true, glue
aw – paw, claw, yawn
wh – wheel, whisper, when
ph – photo, dolphin, alphabet
ew – new, crew, flew
oe – toe, foe, tomatoes
au – Paul, launch, haul
a-e – make, game, snake
e-e – these, Eve, extreme
i-e – like, time, slide
o-e – home, bone, pole
u-e – rule, June, flute

Phase 5 tricky words:
oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked, could

Phase 5 Knowledge Organiser

In Phase 6 children will read with increasing fluency. They will have learned most of the common letter-sound correspondences and can read familiar words automatically without needing to sound out and blend.This includes prefixes and suffixes, doubling and dropping letters, homophones, contractions and possessive apostrophes.

Children beyond Rocket Phonics will progress onto the Sounds and syllables program.

Phonics Screening Test

Children in Year 1 will complete the Phonic Screening Check during the summer term. The phonics screening check is a short test taken by all children in England in Year 1. The check is designed to give teachers and parents information on how your child is progressing in phonics. We strive for all of our children to pass the Phonic Screening Check and additional support will be put in place for those children who require it. The children who do not achieve the pass mark in Year 1 will take the test in the following academic year, when they are in Year 2.

The test consist of 40 words and non-words that your child will be asked to read one-on-one with a teacher. Non-words (or alien words) are a collection of letters that will follow phonics rules your child has been taught, but don’t mean anything – your child will need to read these with the correct sounds to show that they understand the phonics rules behind them. The 40 words and non-words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters. The teacher administering the check with your child will give them a few practice words to read first – including some non-words – so they understand more about what they have to do. Each of the non-words is presented with a picture of a monster / alien, so your child knows it doesn't make sense!

Schools will administer the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check the week beginning Monday 6th June 2022. Please ensure your child is in school during this week.

Click on the link to access previous Phonics Screening Tests:

Previous Phonics Screening Tests