At Hope School, we use the Jolly Phonics and Letters and Sounds approaches to learn to read and write.

Phase 1

For our more sensory learners who are not yet at the stage of learning letter sounds, Phase 1 Letters and Sounds will be used. Planning and assessment for pupils on this phase will come from the Phase 1 booklets ‘Medium Term Plans- English & Phonics 2015-16- Phonics 2016-17-Planning and Resources- Letters and Sounds Teaching Booklets- Phase 1 booklets’

Phase 2

The letter sounds are taught in the Letters and Sounds order. Phase 2 introduces most of the single letter sounds. These are:

Set 1: s, a, t, p
Set 2: i, n, m, d
Set 3: g, o, c, k
Set 4: ck, e, u, r
Set 5: h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss

Learning the letter sounds in groups as above, rather than alphabetically, enables children to begin building words as early as possible. More information about the words that can be made using these letters can be found on the Letters and Sounds website and in the Letters and Sounds booklets found in ‘Medium Term Plans- English & Phonics 2015-16- Phonics 2016-17-Planning and Resources’

Key learning in Phase 2: 19 letters of the alphabet, blending sounds together to make words, segmenting words into their separate sounds. Beginning to read simple captions.

Each of the sounds will be introduced using the Jolly Phonics actions and songs to encourage a multi-sensory way of learning letter sounds.

Phase 3

Phase 3 introduces the remaining single sounds and the double sounds, known as digraphs.

Set 6: j, v, w, x

Set 7: y, z, zz, qu
Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng
Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, or, oa, oo, ar, ou, oi, er, ue, ie

Again, each of the sounds will be introduced using the Jolly Phonics actions and songs to encourage a multi-sensory way of learning letter sounds.

Key learning in Phase 3: The remaining 7 letters of the alphabet, one sound for each. Graphemes such as ch, oo, th representing the remaining phonemes not covered by single letters. Reading captions, sentences and questions. On completion of this phase, children will have learnt the “simple code”, i.e. one grapheme for each phoneme in the English language.

Phase 4

No new grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught in this phase. Children learn to blend and segment longer words with adjacent consonants, e.g. swim, clap, jump and polysyllabic words.

Phase 5

Now we move on to the “complex code”. Children learn more graphemes for the phonemes which they already know, plus different ways of pronouncing the graphemes they already know.

ay day oy boy wh when a-e make

ou out ir girl ph photo e-e these

ie tie ue blue ew new i-e like

ea eat aw saw oe toe o-e home

au Paul u-e rule

Phase 6

Working on spelling, including prefixes and suffixes, doubling and dropping letters etc.

For those children who favour the ‘whole word’ approach to learning to read, words and progression can still be followed using Letters and Sounds.