Phonics and Reading

Phonics Schemes

Phonics Schemes

Discovery Special Academy have developed a phonics progression programme that is used throughout the academy.  Phase one of the programme uses a multi-sensory approach to teach children how to recognise sounds in their environment including the sounds their own voice can make. These are essential pre reading skills. Once embedded, frequent repetition will allow children to apply their sound knowledge to support themwith the structured synthetic phonics approach (Read Write Inc.) in phase two.     

From phase two onwards, children follow the ‘Read, Write Inc.’ synthetic phonics scheme to develop their phonic skills of blending and segmenting at their own pace.  A range of visual resources complements this approach.

The Discovery phonics programme aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as preparing children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children, with the aim of them developing early reading skills and working towards becoming fluent readers.

To support children in reading words, all sounds within the phases are taught in a specific order and separated into sets. Each set contains some sounds with two or three letters representing one sound (digraphs and trigraphs). When teaching the children, we call these sounds ‘chatty friends’ and children learn that together these letters produce one sound, for example sh, th, ng, nk (in Set 1).   

During all phases, children read texts to suit the sounds and words they are learning. All books are read twice in school before being sent home to share. This supports parents when sharing a book at home and children have the opportunity to ‘show off’ their reading skills  in a different setting, encouraging them to become confident, fluent readers. Children progress through reading books at their own pace ensuring they have learnt previous sounds and words before moving on. This gives children the opportunity to retrieve embedded prior phonics knowledge as well as make connections with new learning so that reading becomes easier and enjoyable for them.

Phase	Phonic Knowledge and Skills
Phase One	Phase One phonics at Discovery includes seven areas of learning (steps);   Step 1: Sounds in my environment Step 2: Sounds of instruments Step 3: Using my body to make sounds Step 4: Nursery rhymes and rhythm  Step 5: Initial sounds Step 6: Making sounds with my voice Step 7: Oral blending and segmenting   A Phase One assessment determines if children are ready to move onto Phase two of the Discovery phonics programme.
Phase Two	In Phase Two, children learn the corresponding sounds for the letters of the alphabet and how to blend these sounds together. This helps children to read words. Children also learn how to segment words into their separate sounds. This skill helps children to read and spell words.    Set 1 sounds are taught in this order: m a s d ti n p g o c k u b f e l h sh r j v y w th z chq u x ng nk.    Words in this phase include three and four sounds, some with letters representing more than one sound,  for example, ‘bell’, ‘fluff’ and ‘bucket’.    Children read Sound Blending books 1-10 and Red ‘ditty books’ with corresponding story books.
Phase Three	In Phase Three, children are taught the following sounds whilst still practising previously taught sounds and words. Set 2: ay  ee  igh  ow  oo  oo  ar  or  air  ir  ou  oy.   During this phase, children are taught letter names through singing songs and using alphabet cards. This is done in isolation so children do not become confused with the sounds used in their phonics lesson. Children read Green, purple and pink story books. Non-fiction texts also complement each colour band.
Phase Four	Children are taught the following sounds whilst still practising previously taught sounds and words. Set 3:   ea    oi    a-e    i-e    o-e    u-e    aw    are   ur    er   ow    ai    oa    ew    ire     ear    ure    tion     tious/cious      Children read orange, yellow, blue and grey story books.

For more information about our phonics scheme, please follow the link below

Parents

Phonics Bouncy Sounds

Phonics Stretchy Sounds

Action Words (with Makaton signs)

• English Sequencing Download
• Reading Progression Download