Every June since 2012, Year 1 children have been required to take a phonics screening check to ensure that they are working at the correct level to support reading and writing. Children who don’t meet the expected mark take it again in Year 2. The benefits of strong phonics teaching and learning have been widely accepted since the Rose Review was published in 2006.
But how can you make the most of every busy moment and ensure you are weaving in phonics learning throughout the whole day?
- Remember, phonics is used across the curriculum, not just in English
Get the children to spot phonic sounds throughout the day, keeping a particular focus, such as trigraphs or diagraphs. To avoid disruption, have a system, such as recording the word on a Post-it note and independently adding it to a working display.
- Use the playground
Engage children at lunchtimes and playtimes by leaving words - real and pseudo - pinned up in the outside environment. In phonics sessions, they can hunt for and record these words on clipboards. At break times, they can read them with their friends.
- Use your TA to deliver fast-paced interventions
Teach whole-class lessons that are differentiated with the use of resources, such as magnetic letters or sound cards. The “revisit, review, teach and apply” format ensures all children can access the learning, while teaching assistants can use flashcards to support children who have gaps in their learning, with sounds and words to read when they have spare time. Interventions should be intensive and engaging.
- Reading time reinforces phonics learning
Group or individual reading time is an ideal opportunity to pre-teach, re-teach and informally access children’s phonic knowledge. Keep referring back to your weekly focus - perhaps ask the children to spot these and make collections of words at home as well.
- Be creative
Monster words, alien words - whatever you call them, make this fun. Playing online games is a great time filler but not necessarily effective teaching. Introduce a “Monster Monday” or a “Freaky Friday” phonics session. Sometimes the monsters leave a trail of strange words outside - perhaps a hungry monster needs feeding pseudo words. At our school, monsters are painted or chalked on the playground and the monster books are received with enthusiasm.
- Have high expectations
Most importantly, have high expectations of your children and liaise closely with both foundation stage and Year 2 teachers. A clear phonics curriculum across the school, coupled with an informative and useful assessment system, will quickly help to raise standards.
Alice Edgington is deputy head at St Stephen’s Infant School, Canterbury. She can be found on Twitter at @aliceedgington
