SWING GATE INFANT SCHOOL AND NURSERY Spelling information for parents. The teaching of phonics teaches children the skills required to become independent readers and writers. Children are taught to read and spell using synthetic phonics which is the recommended approach of learning to blend letter sounds to read words and segment words sounds to write them. Technical terms used in phonics teaching. Blending: written letters representing sounds are blended together to read a word eg sh i p are blended together to read the word ship. Segmenting: spoken words are segmented into individual sounds to write a word eg shi p is made up of three sounds sh and i and p and written as ship. A phoneme is the spoken sound attributed to a letter or series of letter. eg the phonemes sh, ch A grapheme is the letter or letters written to represent a spoken sound. eg sh is represented by the letters s and h (sh) and ch by the letters c and h (ch). Phonics learning Phonics skills are taught daily in phase groups from Phase 1 to Phase 5. Children are grouped to ensure they learn effectively at their individual level, irrespective of their class or their age. Each phonics lesson will comprise 

a review of previous learning

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the teaching of a new skill

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practice of the new skill

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application of the new skill in a reading or writing activity.

Weekly Spellings All children working at phase 2 and above will be given weekly spellings each Friday to practise at home. The words to be practised will be recorded in a yellow spelling book which goes home in the child’s book bag. It is recommended that parents use the look, cover, say method to help their children practise the spelling words and practise them little and often. Spelling Quiz The following Friday, spelling words will be tested in a single word test in the child’s phonic group. This will be recorded in a green spelling quiz book. The test will be marked and children told how well they have performed. Parents are welcome to view their child’s spelling quiz book at the end of the school day. Spelling Dictation The following Monday the children will complete a dictation task which will show whether they can apply the spelling pattern or rule that they have been taught. Words using the same spelling pattern as those learned the previous week will be read in simple sentences for the children to write in their phonic books. Teachers will address common errors within the phonics teaching that week.

L.WILLIAMSON MARCH 2015

Letters and Sounds is the scheme used to structure teaching and learning and meet the requirements of 2014 English Programme of Study. What must be taught in Year 1 and Year 2 classes is laid out below. What must be taught to all children in Year 1 Phonics teaching and the revision of learning during Reception class will include:  all letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent  use of letter names to distinguish between alternative spelling of the same sound.  consonant digraphs eg ch sh ng which have been taught and the sounds which they represent  vowel digraphs eg ay ai which have been taught and the sounds which they represent  the process of segmenting spoken words into sounds before choosing graphemes to represent the sounds  the process of blending letters to read a written word. All Year 1 children, whatever phonics phase they work in; will be taught in a 20 minute whole class weekly lesson the statutory spelling requirements detailed above. These skills will also be practised during handwriting sessions. Sounds

Examples

spelling using double letter graphemes : ff ll ss ck.

off well buzz back

The /ŋ/ sound spelt n before k

bank, think honk sunk

The division of words into syllables

pocket rabbit carrot thunder sunset

-tch

Catch fetch kitchen notch hutch

v sound at the end of words

Have live give

Adding s and es to plural and third person words

Cats dogs spends ricks thanks catches

Adding the suffixes –ing –ed –er to words in which the root word does not change

hunting, hunted, hunter, buzzing, buzzed, buzzer, jumping, jumped, jumper

Adding –er and –est to adjectives where no change is needed to the root word.

grander, grandest, fresher, freshest, quicker, quickest

L.WILLIAMSON MARCH 2015

At the end of year 1 children are expected to be able to apply the following Examples

Examples

ai, oi

rain wait train oil join coin

ow

now how brown own snow show

ay oy

day play say boy toy enjoy

ue

blue clue true

a_e

made came same take safe

ew

flew few grew drew

e_e

these theme complete

ie

pie lie tie cried dried

i_e

five ride like time side

ie

chief field thief

o_e

home those woke hope hole

igh

high night light bright right

u_e

June rule rude use tube tune

or

for short born horse morning

ar

car start park arm garden

ore

more score before wore snore

ee

see tree green meet week

aw

saw draw yawn crawl

ea

sea dream meat each read

au

author August dinosaur

ea

head bread meant instead read

air

air fair pair hair chair

er

her term verb person

ear

dear hear beard year near

er

better under summer winter

ear

bear pear wear

ir

girl bird shirt first third

are

bare dare care share scare

ur

turn hurt church Thursday

y ending words

very funny party happy family

oo

food pool moon soon

ph

dolphin alphabet phonics elephant

oo

book took cook foot wood

wh

when where which wheel while

oa

boat coat road coach goal

k

Kent sketch kit skin frisky

oe

toe doe goes

prefix un

unhappy undo unload unfair

ou

out about mouth sound

compound words

football playground farmyard bedroom blackberry

Common exception words the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our

Some children who have not yet acquired this knowledge in Year 1 will be taught during Year 2 before moving onto the Year 2 Programme of Study. Their progress will be tracked to ensure that they acquire this knowledge by the end of Key Stage 1.

L.WILLIAMSON MARCH 2015

What must be taught to all children in Year 2 The following builds upon learning in Year 1 and phonics learning from Letters and Sounds Phase 5. Sounds

Examples

The sound ge and dge at the end of words, and sometimes spelt as g elsewhere in words before e, i and y

badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge

The s sound spelt c before e, i and y

race, ice, cell, city, fancy

The n sound spelt kn and (less often) gn at the beginning of words

knock, know, knee, gnat, gnaw

The r sound spelt wr at the beginning of words

write, written, wrote, wrong, wrap

The l sound spelt –le at the end of words

table, apple, bottle, little, middle

The l sound spelt –el at the end of words

camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel

The l sound spelt –al at the end of words

age, huge, change, charge, bulge, village gem, giant, magic, giraffe, energy jacket, jar, jog, join, adjust

metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal

Words ending –il

pencil, fossil, nostril

The i sound spelt –y at the end of words

cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July

Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in –y

flies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries

Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it

copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied

Adding the endings –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it

hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny

Adding the endings –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it

hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny

Adding –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel letter

patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny

…but copying, crying, replying

a sound before l and ll

all, ball, call, walk, talk, always

o sound

other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday

–ey

key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley

The o sound spelt a after w and qu

want, watch, wander, quantity, squash

w

word, work, worm, world, worth

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w

war, warm, towards

The zh sound spelt s

television, treasure, usual

The suffixes –ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly

enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful, hopeless, plainness (plain + ness), badly merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily

Contractions

can’t, didn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s, I’ll

The possessive apostrophe

Megan’s, Ravi’s, the girl’s, the child’s, the man’s

Words ending in –tion

station, fiction, motion, national, section

Homophones and near-homophones

there/their/they’re, here/hear, quite/quiet, see/sea, bare/bear, one/won, sun/son, to/too/two, be/bee, blue/blew, night/knight

Common exception words: door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind, child, children*, wild, climb, most, only, both, old, cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great, break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past, father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas

There are regular phonics and reading workshops for parents held which give more detailed information and the opportunity to ask questions. We hope that you find this information useful. Should you have any questions please speak to your child’s class teacher at the end of the school day.

L.WILLIAMSON MARCH 2015

L.WILLIAMSON MARCH 2015