Phonics in Reception

Each Reception phonics lesson follows an easy-to-use five point structure:

1. Review & Teach – Recap and introduce new learning.
2. Hook – Engage your pupils with a fun, meaningful introduction.
3. Practice & Apply – Reinforce skills through reading and writing.
4. High-Frequency Words – Teach and apply Reception HFWs and Common Exception Words (CEWs).

Skills Focus

In Reception, lessons focus on the skills of sound identification, blending to read and segmenting to spell.

Term 1

Term 1 teaches all the single letters sounds plus the consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, th, ng) and vowel digraphs (long oo, ar). Skills focus on blending and segmenting of decodable CVC words alongside the reading of the first 60 Reception High Frequency Words including Common Exception Words. Progression is cumulative with each lesson focusing only on decodable words that use graphemes that have been taught so far.

Term 2

Term 2 continues to teach the vowel digraphs (short oo, ow, ee, ur, ai, or, oa, e,r oi) plus trigraphs (igh, air, ear, ure). Skills focus on blending and segmenting of decodable CVC words alongside the reading of the next 23 Reception High Frequency Words including Common Exception Words. 

Term 3

No new graphemes are taught with a focus on revision of previously taught graphemes alongside developing the complexity of word structure, including adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words (CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, CVC+) A further 23 High Frequency Words including Common Exception Words are also taught. 

If you click on the link below, you will be able to watch a video to how to pronounce the pure speech sounds in Reception. 

https://vimeo.com/1060445878?fl=pl&fe=sh 

At the bottom of the page are links to documents for Phonics in Reception. 

Files to Download