Phonics Reception/ Year 1

Phonics

As the children enter their reception year at Church Lench First School, they start their journey into becoming readers and writers. The first step along this new path is through the teaching of phonics. We teach phonics from the EYFS through to the end of Year 2. Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language. As well as using the skill of decoding sounds to help to read, understanding phonics will also help children know which letters/sounds to use when they are writing words.

We teach phonics using the most commonly used approach, synthetic phonics. This is where the teaching of reading in which phonemes (sounds) associated with particular graphemes (letters) are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesised).  As a school we have chosen to adopt the Government validated  'Floppy's Phonics' program. 

Floppy's Phonics links with our school reading scheme, with texts carefully matched to the sounds the children have been learning. We also have coloured book banded books that the children are able to access to read at home for pleasure. Which means that children have access to two books to read at home with their parent/carer.