Phonics

At Heptonstall, we value reading as a key life skill and are dedicated to enabling our pupils to become lifelong readers. We believe that reading is key for academic success and progress in a number of curriculum areas therefore we provide our pupils with the skills and confidence to deal with printed language from a very early age. We provide children with a structured scheme, ELS, that will lead to children becoming fluent readers so that at the end of their primary education with us, they are able to read a wide variety of texts easily.

As we hold reading for pleasure at the heart of reading, we ensure children develop a real love and thirst for reading a range of genres by providing them with an ELS story book which they are reading in class, an ELS story book to read at home and a reading for pleasure book from our school library. The ELS reading books match the individual child’s phonic ability in order for them to practice at home what they have learnt in school, building on their confidence and fluency as readers.

We, as a school, are determined to provide the best phonics teaching to our children and therefore ensure all staff members teaching ELS sessions are regularly up-to-date with the correct training. Miss Dodd our phonics lead, checks in weekly with all staff and holds regular ‘bite-size’ training sessions to ensure the teaching remains at a high level. All of our staff members have access to all of the training videos to recap different areas of the sessions they deliver.

We also ensure our parents and carers are kept up-to-date too by sharing ELS resources, information and ‘how-to’ videos in order to support their children at home.

You can find more information on our phonics scheme at: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/essential-letters-and-sounds/

To find out more about how phonics is taught at Heptonstall then please read our school Phonics policy

 

Take a look at our parent guides to support the teaching and learning of phonics at home. These guides highlight the graphemes taught throughout our programme and the pictures and rhymes that we use alongside them.

Phase 2 Sounds
Phase 3 Sounds
Phase 5 Sounds

ELS Parents Information
Although we follow the ELS scheme for phonics there are still many other resources you can use online and at home to support your child’s reading skills. Some websites include:

 

Games which can be made or played around your home include:

  • I-spy– Use the sound not alphabet name. This can also be extended to segmenting the word – “I spy with my little eye a ‘c-a-t’”.
  • Splat– On a big piece of paper or old bed sheet, write the sounds spaced out. Call a sound out and your child needs to splat it using a fly swatter or other similar tool. This can also be extended to words rather than just sounds.
  • Hide and Seek– Using plastic cups or other similar containers, turn them upside down and record a sound on each one. Hide a small toy or something similar underneath a cup without your child seeing. They have to say the sound on the cup before lifting it up, continue until they find the hidden object. This can also be extended to words rather than just sounds.
  • Sound hunt – Record the sounds on individual paper or something similar. Hide the sounds around the environment, challenge them to see how many they can find. They can only hand it in if they correctly say the sound. This can also be extended to words rather than just sounds.
  • Roll and Read – Create a table 6×6 with numbers 1-6 in the left hand side column. Enter different sounds in the remaining spaces. Roll a dice or generate a number 1-6. Read a sound within that number’s row and place a counter or something similar to show it’s been read. Compete until the board is full. This can also be extended to words rather than just sounds.
  • Missing letter – Write a word (include picture to make easier) and hide one of the letters. Adult to say the word. Child to work out the sound missing.
  • Flashcards– Record the sounds on different materials e.g. card, flash them up – this works well with games such as snap and pairs too. This can also be extended to words rather than just sounds.

Phonics parent PPT

At the end of Year One children take the National Phonics Screening Check. Read the parent guide below
Phonics Screening check information for parents

At Heptonstall we use the Digital Reading Record, Boom Reader to monitor and record pupil’s reading at home and school. To find out more, follow the link.
Boom Reader – Our Digital Reading Record https://www.boomreader.co.uk/