Phonics stage 2 entering reception

[Rox19]

Hello

• please don't take this as a boast as I genuinely require info -

My DD has completed stage 1 phonics at a state run pre school & can competently read all 3 letter words with c-v-c eg fox, bag, cup.

Looking online everything they cover in reception on the basic phonics info form and booklet from the school info eve she can already do.

Is this correct or is stage 2 covered in reception too at some stage during the year? Her pre school report says she is competent in stage 1 & can read 3 letter words.

I'm expecting other Autumn born children are poss the
same?

I've no idea how teachers work with those that don't
know letters across the whole scale in reception, must be very tricky!

Thanks for any help she is first born so I genuinely don't know the processes yet.

[Cheebame]

The school will differentiate if it's a decent school. DD entered reception as a fluent reader, but the school groups them by ability for literacy and have been great at keeping her progress going, albeit there aren't many books for her to choose from so she sometimes has to get them from another class.

The later phonics is used in teaching them how to spell I think.

[mrz]

What do you mean by stage 1 and stage 2 phonics?

[Rox19]

Hi MRZ
If you google it, info sheets come up of what is covered at stage 1 & stage 2 phonics.
Id never heard of it until pre school report yesterday, either.

[mrz]

I'm a teacher and literacy coordinator and never heard of it Rox which is why I'm asking what the pre school mean.

[BeatriceBean]

Ours had a half term of a sound every day. I didnt mind this - it's good to get used to how school does things and good to practice writing the letters.

I don't think we got books until xmas, which at the time I thought was late but looking back I think worked perfectly, a term to settle and play lots. They were then set in ability groups and the top group progressed v fast and read v well.


It's what I suspect/ hope is the norm in most schools. So much is differentiated there's no need to worry!

[Fuzzymum1]

Would it be phase one rather than stage one? that makes more sense to me.

[mrz]

If it's phase 1 & 2 they have only just begun to teach phonics - phase 1 doesn't teach any sound/spelling correspondence and phase 2 only teaches 19 of the 44 sounds in English (with 3 double consonants otherwise only one way the sounds can be spelt) a very long way to go I'm afraid Rox.

[AllFurCoat]

Is it the letters and sounds phases? DD1'S about to finish yR and when she started, they knew she knew the initial phonemes so started her on 2 letter sounds. DD2 will start in sept and I'm assuming they'll do much the same with her, although she's a lot further ahead than DD1 was.

The I didn't pay too much attention, the school know what they're doing and will differentiate accordingly. Within the first week they'll have worked out where your DC is up to, they may go back over things you think they already know though just to make sure they're secure!

[mrz]

In reception she will be taught all 44 sounds how to blend them for reading and how to segment for spelling and how to read ccvc, cvcc, cccvc, ccvcc words etc. In Y1 she will learn the alternative ways the sounds can be written and hw to read and spell polysyllabic words and in Y2 she will learn prefixes and suffixes.

[GhoulWithADragonTattoo]

Is it Jolly Phonics perhaps? They do that at my DS's nursery and it is quite fun. My DD had done it before she started school and it set her off on the right track with her reading. She certainly wasn't miles ahead of her classmates though so I wouldn't worry.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

JP doesn't use the terms stage 1 and stage 2 either. They teach one way of writing the 44+ sounds and then the hand book has 'further phonics' for each sound.

Doesn't orrelate with letters and sounds because if she can blend fox, then she's part way through phase 3 not phase 1.

[mrz]

I assumed it was the pre school's own system

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Their own system is the only thing I can think of mrz. It doesn't fit with any scheme I'm aware of and Google isn't helping much. Stage 1 and 2 are just bringing up loads of links for phase 1 and 2 which don't match.

[catkind]

That's about what was covered in class in the autumn term in our school. But if she already knows it hopefully they will differentiate appropriately and give her reading books at the next stage up. DS could do about the same when he started school, he couldn't write at all though so I think he spent most of that term sorting out writing the letters.

DS reception class did up to phase 4 of letters and sounds in class I think. At one point they were going to take some of the better readers up to phase 5 but I don't know if they actually did as DS doesn't report much and knew the sounds anyway.

[Rox19]

Thanks every
One!

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

If you are flexible with your grouping and don't use letter and sounds then it isn't as hard to differentiate as you might think. Normally you'd start teaching blending and segmenting using graphemes after the first 3-4 sounds have been taught. Probably within the first couple of weeks.

The Op doesn't mention writing and spelling so she might well be starting from scratch with that and if she can read CVC words, then it's just a case of making sure that you include longer words for blending in any whole class and group/individual work so that she is still being challenged.

[Rox19]

Yes it is phase 2 btw - my mistake

[mrz]

Schools following Letters & Sounds phases are expected to cover phases 2, 3 & 4 in reception so there's still plenty for her to learn.

Most children entering our reception class don't know any sound/spelling correspondences when they start it isn't a problem.

[erin99]

Ours all start from scratch on learning their sounds but it's a very small chunk of their day. It is important that they learn to say 'sss' instead of 'ess' for example, which is important in blending later, so no one gets to skip the basics. After single letters they start working through digraphs.

The more able readers are reading ahead of their official phonics teaching but it doesn't seem to cause any problems. The children are just surrounded with a lot of books and get on with it. Precocious readers aren't held back by not having learned 'igh' in class yet, because they pick it up from sight words. I expect they might advance a bit quicker if taken out of class and given accelerated phonics teaching, but they have plenty of books to choose from and my 2 (1 able reader, one slower starter) have both developed a real love of reading from this gentle approach. DS is YR and one of the more able ones, and his teacher says he concentrates really well at carpet time. Whole class phonics is not boring him.

[ISpyPlumPie]

Sounds like my DS is at a very similar stage to your DD Rox. We got his pre-school report yesterday which states he's working within phase 2. It also says he us able to segment 3 sound words and blend them back together, as well as recognise the letters and read simple words.

I'm under no illusions that he's still got a long way to go before he is fully reading (though am very proud of the progress he's making). It's been really helpful to read in more detail about what phase 2 actually involves. I want to continue yo support him over the summer but am worried about confusing him completely! I would welcome any suggestions about the best way to approach things.

[LittleMissGreen]

Our school cover a sound a day, 4 days a week, in reception. So if you are talking the phonics phase 2 from Letters and Sounds we'd have covered them in the first 5 weeks. That includes writing the letters as well as reading.
They have been very good at differentiating though - DS2 who joined reception knowing phase 2 sounds whizzed through the reading levels and was doing phonics with/reading with the top year 1 group by October. DS3 blossomed in January and was moved ahead then.

[Happy36]

Phonics will probably be done in groups as will writing and reading individually. I am confident the school will assess your son's level and put him in the appropriate group - he's unlikely to be the only child with this level (although I don't know what his school is like in that respect).

Don't worry, schools are good at differentiating especially with younger children, in all different ways.

[BeatriceBean]

Little - I must admit I do wish my school had mixed the year groups for their phonics set. I suspect my daughter would have flown even more than she has. However she is doing well, and reading well, and enjoyed her reception year :)

[littlejohnnydory]

My experience is that it varies a lot between schools - ds entered reception as a fluent reader. The school he was at did v little with him. However, it was possibly because it was in Wales and they don't usually do English literacy before Year 2.

DD is going into reception in September...I don't know the phonics stages properly but she is reading Oxford Reading tree level 4 at Nursery, she is not reading fluently but she can decode sounds formed by more than one letter - "sh", "ch", "ight" "tion" etc. I'm quite confident that she will be challenged by this school - ds is now finishing Year 1 - he was Home Educated for a year but joined Year 1 at this school after Easter - he has got a lot out of the phonics teaching, even though his reading and comprehension is excellent his spelling and writing have improved hugely in just one term and the books he is reading, whilst easy for him to actually read and understand, are being used to inform the rest of his literacy work and he is doing really well.

[Ferguson]

There will still be a lot of 'learning through play' in Reception, as in a nursery or pre-school. Social skills, art, music, PE etc are also important, and there may not be very much 'formal teaching'.

I was TA in a class in a small school where Reception/Yr1/Yr2 were all in one class, with one teacher and several support workers. What at first sight might seem difficult, in fact gives the teacher flexibility to mix children according to ability and knowledge and skills they already have. Thus, in a class like that, a child such as yours might, on occasions, work with a Yr1 or Yr2 stream.

Obviously, share as much reading and number activities with her as you can, but make it relaxed and fun, not 'work'!

A book you might all find useful and interesting, is reviewed in MN Book Reviews. In the "Children's educational books and courses" section you will find the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary. This lists words according to SOUNDS, not just a letter. Thus, in the /S/ 'ssss' pages, besides words starting with S, are ones like 'cinema, cycle' Cinderella'. The MN review links so you can view sample pages, and purchase if you so wish.

'Educating' a child can be a lot of fun! Our DS, now aged thirty-one, obtained a good Uni degree and had some very good jobs. But now he is at Uni again, finishing a 'Masters' and is lined up for a three year PhD. So - it starts in Reception, but you could be in for the 'long haul'!