Parent Workshop October & November 2026
The Importance of Early Reading Support Put simply, by the end of reception, the ability to read, write and use numbers is fundamental. They are the building blocks for all other learning. Without firm foundations in these areas, a child’s life chances can be severely restricted.” – Ofsted
Aims •
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To share how phonics is taught from PreNursery to Year 2. To show examples of activities and resources we use to teach phonics.
• To give you some ideas of how you can support your child(ren) at home. • To give parents an opportunity to ask questions. Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
What is Phonics and why do we teach it? •
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Phonics is tuning into individual sounds and learning the letter sound correspondences to support learning to read and write. We follow: ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’ scheme - a government validated synthetic phonics scheme. Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
‘Synthetic phonics is a method for teaching children how to read and write in English. Through this form of phonics teaching, children will learn how all words in English are reducible to units of sounds called 'phonemes', which we write down using letters or small groups of letters called 'graphemes'.’
Daily Phonics •
There are 5 phonics phases which the children work through from prenursery to year 2.
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Every day the children in reception and year 1 have a discreet lesson lasting15 - 25 minutes.
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Fast paced approach – lots of rehearsal and embedding.
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In Year 2 we build on phonics skills consolidating knowledge. In January Year 2 will follow ‘The Spelling Shed’ programme – new this year Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Phase 1 - Pre-Nursery & Nursery
• General sound discrimination (environmental, instrumental, body percussion) • Rhythm and rhyme • Alliteration • Voice sounds • Oral blending and segmenting Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Phonics in Pre-Nursery •
Rhyme of the week – focus
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Environmental sounds
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Rhyming stories and songs
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Focus on talk
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Wow words
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Support from key person
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Encourage speaking/full sentences/conversation Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Phonics in Nursery •
Interactive sound displays
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Phonics games
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Mark making
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Sorting sounds
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Matching letter sounds to objects
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Tongue/ mouth exercises
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Oral blending and segmenting
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Name writing
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Majority of single letter sounds introduced Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Reception – Phase 2 Learning phonemes/graphemes to read and write simple words Children will learn/revise their first 19 phonemes: Set 1: s a t p Set 5: h b l f
Set 2: i n m d ff (as in puff)
Set 3: g o c k ll (as in hill)
Set 4: ck e u r
ss (as in hiss)
They will use these phonemes to read and spell simple “consonant-vowelconsonant” (CVC) words: sat, tap, dig, duck, rug, puff, hill, hiss All these words contain 3 phonemes. Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Phonics phase 2– Reception Sounds of the week activities may include; Kim’s game – what is missing? Quick write – on a whiteboard Matching letter sounds to objects Using letter fans ELS tasks in a workbook Reading ELS phonics books Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Reception- Phase 3 Children will continue to blend and segment to read and spell CVC words.
They will learn another 26 phonemes: j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu Digraphs ch, sh, th, ng They will learn the long vowel digraphs; ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er They will use their phonic knowledge to read and spell words such as: chip, shop, thin, ring, pain, feet, night, boat, boot, look, farm, fork, burn, town, coin, dear, fair, sure Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Non-decodable words - ‘Harder to read and spell words’
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Reception/Year 1 - Phase 4 Reading and spelling words with four or more phonemes It focuses on reading and spelling longer words with the phonemes they • already know. •
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twist, stomp, brown, clap
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Phase 5 – Reception and Year 1/2 Teach new graphemes for reading and writing; • ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, wh, ph, ew, oe, au, a-e, e-e, ie, o-e, u-e Learn alternative pronunciations of graphemes (the same grapheme can represent more than one phoneme): Fin/find, hot/cold, cat/cent, got/giant, but/put, cow/blow, tie/field, eat/bread, farmer/her, hat/what, yes/by/very, chin/school/chef, out/you, shoulder/could/. Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Blending Decodable Words – keep phonemes clear and precise
c-a-t = cat f-i-sh = fish Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Let’s Have a Go!
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
ELS Lesson structure in Reception and Year 1 /2 An example of what a lesson may encompass; • 1. Review previously taught graphemes. • 2. Oral sound blending of decodable words. • 3. Learning harder to read and spell words. • 4. Learning a new sound (listening). • 5. Recognise the matching grapheme. • 6. Discovering words that have that phoneme in them. • 7. Writing the new grapheme. • 8. Sounding and blending decodable words. • 9. Locating the new grapheme in a pack of already taught ones. • 10 Apply knowledge by using the workbook and decodable readers Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Interactive resources
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Physical resources
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Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Interactive resources
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Assessment of phonics •
Hearing children read their phonics reading book and applying knowledge of HRSWs, graphemes and blending.
Observing children during phonics sessions – carpet and when completing workbooks • Observing children writing – using the spelling sequence and recording graphemes •
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Half termly assessments using phonics tracker – identifies gaps for the class group/cohort/individual – graphemes, blending, HRSWs
Interventions • • •
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Keep up, not catch up scheme In lesson interventions Blending HWSWs Grapheme recognition Teacher, TA, IN teachers Parents as partners - rehearsal and practise – sharing gaps
Making Progress – Nursery/Reception
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Making Progress - Reception
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Making Progress - Reception
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Making Progress -Year 1
Supporting at Home • Read picture books and read for pleasure. • Read books sent home (hard copies and online) - please write in reading record. • Practise recognising sounds and mnemonic of graphemes.
• Support learning spellings – Year 1 and 2 – linked to the ELS phonics scheme • Practise writing for real-life purposes e.g. a shopping list, birthday and thank you cards, postcards, letters etc. Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Spelling sequence
Supporting at Home – Games to Play • Spy (digraphs/ two letter
sounds) • Robot talk and blending hands • Sound bingo • Kim’s game • Quick write • Online games Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/secure/signup#top
Supporting at Home - resources
Correct pronunciation of letter sounds Sounds should be articulated clearly and precisely. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/essential-letters-and-sounds/
ELS phonics scheme lesson structure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfMaY2p7bTw
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Questions
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |
Claremont Drive, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9LY | www.claremontfancourt.co.uk | 01372 467841 |