Phonics

Phonics

At Newchurch St Nicholas, we teach phonics using the Twinkl Phonics Programme.

It is a fast paced, clearly progressed phonic programme that takes children through six phases (levels).

Children progress through the levels at different speeds. In order to make this learning relevant to all children, we have grouped them according to the phase they are at.

Phonics is taught in daily twenty five minute sessions after worship. A variety of short activities make up these sessions. Phonics at Newchurch is as interactive and engaging as possible to enable all children to access the work.

We  use Twinkl Phonics to plan and deliver our phonics sessions. Our reading books are also linked to this so that children can read books that they are able to phonically decode. 

Below is a list of the different opportunities your child will have at each level.

If you require any further information please speak to your child’s class teacher.

Level 1:

Children are encouraged to listen to sounds in their environment. 

Ask your child questions e.g. ‘What can you hear? How do you know?’

Level 2:

By the end of Level 2, children will have had opportunities to:

• identify the phoneme when shown any Level 2 grapheme;

• identify any Level 2 grapheme when they hear the phoneme;

• orally blend and segment CVC words, such as ‘sat’ and ‘pat’;

• blend sounds to read VC words, such as ‘if’, ‘am’, ‘on’ and ‘up’;

• segment VC words into their sounds to spell them (using magnetic letters);

• read the tricky words (words that cannot be sounded out): the, to, I, no, go..

Level 3:

By the end of Level 3, children will have had opportunities to:

• say the phoneme when shown all or most Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes;

• find all or most Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes, from a display, when given the phoneme;

• blend and read CVC words (single-syllable words, consisting of three Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes) such as ‘chop’ and ‘night’;

• segment and make phonetically plausible attempts at spelling CVC words (single-syllable words, consisting of three Level 2 and Level 3 graphemes) such as ‘paid’ and ‘seed’;

• read the tricky words - he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, her, they, all, are & spell the tricky words - the, to, I, no, go;

• write each letter correctly when following a model. 

Level 4:

By the end of Level 4, children will have had opportunities to:

• give the phoneme when shown any Level 2 or Level 3 grapheme;

• find any Level 2 or Level 3 grapheme when given the phoneme;

• blend and read words containing adjacent consonants, as well as segment and spell words containing adjacent consonants, such as ‘sand’, ‘bench’ and ‘flight’;

• read the tricky words - some, one, said, come, do, so, were, when, have, there, out, like, little, what & spell the tricky words - he, she, we, me, be, was, my, you, here, they, all, are; • write each letter, usually using the correct formation;

• orally segment words into phonemes. No new sounds are taught in Level 4.

Level 5:

By the end of Level 5, children will have had opportunities to:

• give the phoneme, when shown any grapheme that has been taught;

• for any given phoneme, write the common graphemes;

• apply phonics knowledge and skills as the primary approach to reading and spelling unfamiliar words that are not completely decodable;

• read and spell phonically decodable two-syllable and three-syllable words, such as ‘dolphin’ and ‘fantastic’

• read automatically all taught tricky and common exception words;

• accurately spell all the Level 2, 3 and 4 tricky words and most of the common exception words for reading;

• form each letter correctly;

• use alternative ways of pronouncing and representing the long vowel phonemes, e.g. ‘ea’ in ‘beak’, ‘ee’ in ‘seed’ and ‘y’ in ‘happy’.

Level 6: 

By the end of Level 6, children will have had opportunities to:

• read accurately most words of two or more syllables;

• read most words containing common suffixes;

• read most common exception words;

• read most words accurately, in age-appropriate books, without overt sounding and blending, fluent enough to allow them to focus on their understanding rather than on decoding individual words;

• sound out most unfamiliar words accurately, without undue hesitation;

• segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonetically plausible attempts at others;

• spell most common exception words correctly.

At this stage, children can read hundreds of words automatically. They are now reading for pleasure and reading to learn, rather than learning to read.

Some useful websites for all phonics phase games can be found at: