Talk to me about phonics

[ViaRia01]

My eldest son will start primary school in September 2026. I’ve heard before that it’s better to leave teaching of phonics to the teachers unless you know enough about it to explain things properly.

What do I need to know to help my child understand and make sure I don’t cause confusion later on when he starts school.

I’ve heard parents should find out what phonics scheme the school uses. Can someone explain that to me? What is a phonics scheme and how do they differ from one another.

Any others thoughts, tips or information that you can share, would be most appreciate. Thanks

You have had some good advice around phonics. I am going to say something about writing. Writing skills mean using all the small muscles in your hand , and co ordinating these with your eyes. So to develop good writing both need to work together. Many childrens fine muscle skills don’t develop until they are slightly older, but you can encourage them by activities such as jigsaws, brick building, duplo before lego, playing with small world figures eg farm sets and so on, drawing, colouring and painting. Cooking activities, mixing, rolling out, biscuit cutting and decorating, doing up buttons and other fastenings. Using cutlery. You will think of plenty more. These are hard, focussed activities so don’t push them too much, just encourage your child to play and develop skills. Dont neglect larger muscle skills too, like throwing and catching, bean bags are really useful, which also help with hand eye coordination. I would include ball kicking too, as this will help your child to sort out their left/ right dominance .

I would leave off actual “writing” for a while, but if you do make sure you teach the formation of lower case letters rather than capital letters (except for the first letter of your child’s name) making sure the letter is started in the right place, and follows the right direction. Using a paintbrush ( nice activity to do outside in the summer, using water rather than paint) or using a tactile medium such as sand , flour, rice on a shallow tray to practice letter shapes.

@BoleynMemories13Why can you not differentiate the reading stages? How awful that bright dc who are ahead a bored by your lessons! Since when is that acceptable? Quite a few dc can be taught reading at home to some extent. They should be allowed to flourish.

Phonics is not that wonderful. Certainly not the magic reading bullet it was meant to be. Results at sats aren’t better now than they were in 2000. Varied stories being read to dc and guiding them when they show interest pays dividends. Don’t wait for school if dc is interested. Crack on - most bright dc don’t get confused either because they have good memories.

Many schools will have a parent session early on in reception to help with understanding phonics.

Both of my DSs figured reading out for themselves before they started school, and the early phonics lessons were dull for them but luckily didn't take up much time. The teacher did offer differentiation but that was separate to the phonics sessions.

Agree

I frequently see people telling Op's who have asked advice about phonics, to leave it and its better that their kids can recognise their name, hang up coats etc. I would assume if someone had taken the time to come onto a forum to ask for help they would be an involved parents who is spending time with their kid, and the soft skills of the kid are good.

One post with the soft skills fine, but post after post saying the kids will be confused, or bored etc.

I think a basic awareness of phonics and blending simple sounds together can be very helpful before they start Reception.

At my Primary they stream the kids. And the kids who are a little ahead do get work at a higher level or kids get more support if in a lower level. They would never admit this to the parents.

Kids are in different groups based on their numeracy and for their English. Depending on the kid, the kids will know who is getting the more complicated and harder work.

My niece is in Reception. Her mum knows of the the TA in the class. Who has assured her she is in the top group, doing well. And now when they have parents evening they will let her know whether she has any extra needs. Likely all they will say is best to ensure plenty of reading at home because she is doing so well. Better to do the extra wprk before the kids ends up needing support.
Rather than being told she need to work on her phonics, number work handwriting and then you're playing catch up etc.

Working on these thingsjust gives your kids an extra boost and I think its doing a disservice to involved parents who are interested in their children's education if you try and dissuade them from doing a little extra work.

Anyway for the Op I think like above find out what phonic scheme they are using in the school.

But personally for me. I found Alphablocks the best.

In series one they have an episode you can find it on YouTube. Where it's just the all the letters making their sounds. Starting from a to z. Think it's called- The alphabet a to z.

I think if you learn how they are pronouncing them in that episode that's the sound you need to be teaching your kid.

Again the first few series of Alphablock is the best. They focus on the main sounds and much shorter words.

A basic idea of what blending is to make words will also help immensely.

So d-o-g makes dog. Just need to ensure you are pronouncing the phonics correctly( alphablocks is best)

I don't think you need to go any more complicated than that.

And obviously ensure the soft skills are up to date.

Unfortunately due to work neither parent of my children could attend these.

One thing to remember when your child is reading, it's not just reading that is important, it's comprehension too. Many parents get excited when their child starts to read and wants them to move up the reading levels, without realising they need to have the requisite comprehension skills too to move up a band/level/colour. Also many phonics scheme don't just look at phonics they will bring in comprehension, writing skills etc, so will only move up a level once they have mastered everything in the previous level

I think we just like to bore dc. A dc who has been read to and comprehends lots of things like instructions, describes things well with a decent vocabulary and is engaged in learning will understand what they read. It’s not difficult for parents to check this by asking questions. My DDs chose early reading books from the library and school allowed YR to choose ANY book from their library too. DD chose the Diary of Samuel Pepys at age 4 - Ladybird version about the great fire of London. “And why not?” Said her teacher when I asked about her choice. She was right. Why not? Stuff phonics!

We seem to teach to the bottom 1/3 instead of stretching the top 1/3.

That poster never said that they don't differentiate. Don't attack teachers who care enough to post on a forum to help children who they don't even teach, especially if you're doing that without comprehending what they're saying.

Children do get confused if their parents are teaching them incorrectly. Varied stories are great. Parents should be reading to and with their kids from the baby stage. This is really beneficial. Parents teaching phonics early can be counterproductive.

Comparing SATs results with previous years isn't meaningful as they are marked to a curve.

I thought phonics scores had improved

@sittingonabeach Phonics wasn’t scored years ago. We just had reading tests. Unfortunately the numbers not getting the minimum required level hadn’t gone up. Phonics was meant to ensure better reading outcomes. It hasn’t.

The teacher said “you don’t want your child to become bored”. It’s perfectly reasonable to say a teacher should never ever allow a YR child to be bored. They should evaluate what dc can do and teach accordingly. Assessment and lesson planning are vital. Bored dc don’t make progress. It’s fairly basic that all dc should make progress and not be bored.

You've taken my comment about children potentially being bored completely out of context. I would have answered you in detail about differentiation (which we do obviously do), if I felt you were genuinely asking a question you wished to know the answer to. However, since you choose to follow it up with a sarcastic comment, insinuating that children must be bored in my lessons, I'm assuming you're not actually interested in my answer and just took the opportunity to get in a sly (inaccurate) dig. So I won't bother wasting my time explaining my comment to you, as there really was no need to be so rude.

@BoleynMemories13 How superior you are! You mentioned DC being bored! Not me. The obvious inference was that early learning caused boredom in your class. At least I can understand what you wrote but of course it might not have been what you intended to write. I don’t need lessons on differentiation and assessment thanks. Perfectly au fait with it. It’s just such a shame teachers seek to put dc off reading who would enjoy making a start.

I am a Reception teacher and eyfs phase lead. I also have a 4yo child.

Before school, I would recommend phase 1 phonics games and activities. As others have saod about oral blending - games like, can you touch your h-ea-d? What noise does a f-r-o-g make? Point to something r-e-d.

Also games linked to rhythm. Clapping back or stamping back a rhythm you have done.

Playing games that will improve memory, like Kim's game.

Lots and lots of songs, rhymes and reading books.

For maths, notice things. Conkers on the ground - i notice a 2 and a 1. Karen Wilding has loads of great maths ideas for younger children.

you can teach the pure sounds, phonemes, for the alphabet graphemes but I wouldn’t do anything else.

phonic scheme validity lies in following the scheme rigorously.

My DD’s school did a phonics session for parents at the start of Reception so we knew what to expect and how to support the kids. Your DC’s school might offer something similar.

Superior? If anything, it's you that's giving that vibe. Clearly you think you could do a better job at differentiating lessons 30 different ways.

As I suspected, you weren't in search of answers at all, despite seemingly asking a question. You were just making a dig because you assumed I meant teachers can't be bothered to differentiate.

The OP was talking about wanting to be ready for when their child starts school, so my comments are in reference to when they initially start school, not how it will be throughout their whole schooling. If the OP would like me to elaborate on why some people think ploughing ahead with phonics before her child starts school may lead to some boredom when they initially start school (ie, when the teacher has only just met them all and is still baselining where they're all at with their learning) then I will happily discuss it with them. I don't, however, need to explain myself to someone who speaks with such disdain to someone else without bothering to hear them out on what they actually meant by their chosen words.

@BoleynMemories13 30 different ways? Why would you need to do that? But surely you must have your checks in place to see what dc can do when they start school? I’ve known dc actually reading at 4. Telling them and their parents not to bother is just ludicrous. Anyway, luckily for my dc, teachers understood some dc could do a lot and others didn’t recognise their names.

If course we have our 'checks in place'. It's called Baselining. It usually lasts throughout the month of September, while teachers get to know each individual pupil's personality and their abilities, as they start to build their relationship with each child. Once that's established, more personalised learning to be planned for.

Sorry, I was being a bit facetious by talking about differentiating 30 different ways. It's not quite that complex. Children are indeed all individuals though, so everybody's needs need to be considered when planning and delivering a lesson. Their ability, their confidence, their independence, their learning styles. It's not as simple as they are higher ability, they are middle ability and they are lower. It's really not as easy as some people think to cater for the needs of 30 different children in each lesson. Some big schools might group children by ability (which is actually an outdated approach, which many phonics schemes advise against now), having up to 6 different groups run by different members of staff (not all qualified teachers). In a small school though, this wasn't always possible even back when streaming was a thing. Phonics generally tends to be taught whole class now, with support and challenge both weaved in for those who need it. It's not an easy balance, but most teachers will try their best to meet the needs of all learners in their class.

I'm still bewildered why you chose to jump on me, assuming I couldn't be bothered to differentiate and must be against parents doing any form of teaching at home, based on one tiny line to another poster in a very lengthy and detailed post, aimed to support them. Had you simply asked what I meant by that comment, you would have discovered that I'm not against children learning to read before school at all and have years of experience of working with children starting school at various different levels of phonemic awareness, ranging from none whatsoever to fluent, sight readers. I always do my best to ensure all learners are adequately challenged. The 'boredom' theory isn't even necessarily my own point of view, just an opinion that some people do have when it comes to the debate about whether children should be exposed to phonics before starting school or not. OP asked in general why some people are against this, I tried to answer as generally as possible to all their questions, trying to cover all bases to help them understand some of the messages they were hearing.

Had you simply asked what I meant first time around, I would have explained earlier that it's not necessarily my personal opinion. Instead, you choose to make a snap judgement, of which you were very wrong.

One of the most important things you can do is to read to your child. Share good quality picture books and discuss the story. What can you see in the pictures? What do you think will happen next? How do the characters feel? Why? Etc. encourage them to answer questions in full sentences. A child who is read to regularly will develop good language (beyond functional language) and inference, as well as a good imagination.

@BoleynMemories13 Well I repeat it wasn’t me who said dc would be bored in class. It was you in your class. So do forgive me if that was an incorrect view. Maybe explain more fully without saying dc will be bored because most parents don’t want to hear that.

As I said, I would have had no problem with you simply questioning me on my comments. I would have been only too happy to explain that it's a viewpoint some people have, which is why OP may come across people advising against it, but not necessarily my own viewpoint. I just found the way you felt the need to attack me for my comments, rather than simply question them, unnecessary.

The sole intention of my original reply was to try and offer support and advice to the OP. I would only ever try to be helpful on here.