What is your school's approach to phonics (IF any)?

[Arkadia]

I was revising some words with DD (P4): this week she is supposed to revise the two lists of tricky words they have been working on since after Christmas (along with 2 sounds, and ).

It goes without saying that having a list of 30 "tricky" words per term is highly inefficient because you are not going to get anywhere anytime soon (and certainly not by the time primary is over). However, the discovery of the day is that the teacher asked them to make up "mnemonics" (her word) to remember the really tricky ones. So now she has:

Fred Runs Up Into Town - Fruit
Setting Up Races Everyday - Sure
Big Eagles Fly Over Roosters' Eggs - Before

OK, I need to get out more, I know, but, still, I was appalled that the teacher suggested such an approach. What about having "ui" when you did ? Indeed, now DD knows how to spell "fruit" (and I was surprised when she got it right first time, but now I know why), but what about "cruise" and "bruise" and "suitcase" and so on?
Also, does "before" really need a "mnemonic"? "Be" shouldn't be a problem and "fore" is the same as "more", "core", "bore" and so on.
The only word I am not sure how to decode is "sure", but I know that this is MY problem and the teacher should teach ME (via my DD) how to do it. But no... "Setting Up Races Everyday".

In fairness this years' teachers are much better than the ones we had in the past, and says it all (and yes, we are in an allegedly good school).
Mnemonics are not entirely new to us because in P2 we were given one to write "because" (something to do with elephants... can't quite remember it now) and at the time I thought it was quite a smart thing to do :D :D

My DD by the end of the year will have done 135 "tricky words". I went through the list and to me the only ones noteworthy (out of 105) are: breakfast,
cupboard,
sure,
February.
All the others are absolutely normal words with absolutely normal spellings (not that the above words are so odd).
For example, this time she has: seven, seventeen, never, before, fruit, sure, garden, yesterday, swimming, believe, decided, another, quiet, quite, clothes.
Why on earth should she even try to memorize these words is beyond me, let alone have mnemonics...
To prove my point DD wasn't sure about quite/quiet, so I had her sound them both out and she got them right every time without having to remember anything at all.

I can understand that mnemonics could come in handy for unusual spellings, like "my frIEnd is Incredibly Elegant" and such like, but not for perfectly regular words like "fruit".

So, after this long rant, my question is, what is your school's approach to phonics (if any)?

Years ago so I asked if they were following the phonics teaching as per the Clackmannanshire study.

The answers was no because it was not necessary for our children. Mmm. Because it was a relatively well off area ? That was the underlying theme I believe.

So we got a bit of jolly phonics followed by mixed methods! Twas a shambles tbf.

Ms, I see...
I wonder on average what the level of understanding of phonics is. From what I see at my school, pretty low, but, again, rather than the fault of the individual (head)teacher, it could be because of the council and the way they want to run things, and teacher training.

Honestly just teach what you can at home.

Looking back trying to fathom the system was a waste of my energy.

Hahahahaha, this is what I am trying to do. What happens within the school walls is a mystery I have long given up trying to understand.

Best wishes to you!

Our school has a phonics programme which I think goes far too quickly and it goes over most kids' heads (weekly whiteboard lesson). Then the kids get 6 or 10 completely unrelated words home to learn for spelling test on Friday

Little, can you give us some more details? Do you have lists of words they go through?

They get an assessment at the start of P2 and P3 which mainly consists of words they learned the previous year and are put into spelling groups according to their score. Our class has 4 groups. They cover a list of words each week. The less able ones will be doing cvc words, another might be doing ea words and the better group might do 6 words with a common sound and then four random tricky words. The school has a list which was compiled a few years ago. It was based around the Nelson spelling scheme which was the in thing at the time. Hope that makes sense to you!

Thanks.
I have to admit it is a bit difficult without seeing the "real thing".
Buy, how do they treat the "tricky words"? Are children asked to memorize them or do they decode them anyway?