Phonics

Welcome Parents!

Rainbow Primary School is delighted to support you through your child’s reading journey. This page aims to support you at home with your child’s phonics and reading. Our school follows the Read Write Inc. scheme. You can click http://www.ruthmiskin.com/ to find out more.

We have phonics lessons for 60 minutes each day. Phonics is then applied through reading and writing lessons so that the children have lots of opportunities to apply their knowledge. Take a look at some important information about phonics below.
What the government requires children to learn in phonics:

What is phonics?

Phonics is a method of using sounds that match with letters to teach reading and writing. ‘One phoneme’ means ‘one sound’; ‘two phonemes’ means ‘two sounds’ and so on. Words are made up of different sounds; we teach the children the sounds and they use them to read and write.

There are 26 letters in the alphabet and 44 sounds (phonemes). Have a look at the complex speed sound chart. Some columns have more than one sound, they make the same sound but they are written differently depending on the word e.g. m (mum), mm (swimming), mb (numb).

Click here to view the complex sounds chart

There are 4 sets of sounds that we teach; set 1, set 2, set 3 and additional sounds.

Click here to view the set 1, 2, 3 rhyme sheet

Set 1:

m a s d t i n p g o c k u b f e l h r j v y w v x z ch ng nk qu sh th

These are learnt individually, as part of real words and as part of nonsense words.

Set 2:

ay ee igh ow oo (zoo)  oo (look)  ar   or   air   ir   ou   oy

These sounds are less frequent but make up the bulk of learning for Year 1. They are used in real and nonsense forms to assess if a child can see/read the phonemes within words. For example, pay  is p-ay (2 phonemes) not p-a-y (3 phonemes). So it’s nonsense form could be thay (th-ay) or vay (v-ay) or any other reasonable form that the children could read.

Set 3:

a-e   ea   i-e   o-e   u-e ai  ea  ie  oa  ue  aw  au  ur  er  ire  ear  ure

These sounds are variations/extensions on the more common set 1/2 phonemes that the children will have already learned. As an example the children will learn ay (as in May) first. The same long a sound can be heard in make or fail though it is spelled differently.

Additional Sounds:

ue ie au e-e kn ck wh ph

These sounds are another variation to the set 1/2/3 sounds. For example, the children will initially learn or (as in short) and then aw (as in claw) and finally au (as in astronaut).

Pronouncing each sound:

Take a look at the following videos, they will support you and your child with the pronunciation of sounds.

Practice reading the different sounds in words.

Click here to view the Set 1 powerpoint
Click here to view the Set 2 powerpoint
Click here to view the Set 3 powerpoint
Click here to view the Red Words powerpoint

At the end of Year 1 your child will sit a ‘Phonic screening test’. The results from the test is sent through to the local authority. The main purpose of the test is to assess how much phonics your child has learnt since reception. If your child fails, they will have the opportunity to re-sit in Year 2.

The class teacher will assess your child and they use the following video as a guide to assessment.