At Pinewood Infant and Nursery School, early reading is taught using synthetic phonics as the main approach to reading. Pupils are systematically taught the phonemes (sounds), how to blend the sounds all through the word for reading, and how to segment the sounds in order to write words. Children are taught to use their phonic skills and knowledge as their first approach to reading, but are also taught how to read high frequency words which do not completely follow the phonic rules.
Here is a video explaining how each phoneme (sound) is articulated:
Children learn:
Children have time to practise and rapidly expand their ability to read and spell words. They are also taught to read and spell ‘tricky words’, which are words with spellings that are unusual.There is a suggested order for teaching the letters which we follow and adapt.We recognise, however, that children’s personal experience of letters varies enormously. Most importantly, we ensure that phonics is taught and practised at a pace that is suitable for individual and groups of children.
Statutory phonics screening check
At the end of year one, your child will undergo a statutory phonics screening check. This is a statutory assessment which began in 2012.
All children in year one must take the check and any year two children who did not meet the expected standard in the previous year will take the check again.
The phonics screening check is designed to confirm whether or not individual children have learned phonics decoding to the appropriate standard.
The links below will enable you to download copies of previous phonics screening checks.
Our phonics workshop materials provide further details about the check.