Phonics is the knowledge of letters and the sounds they make. At Westmeads Community Infant School, phonics is taught through the 'Letters and Sounds' programme. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, actions are taught to help the children remember the sounds.

The children are taught the skills of blending sounds together to read words and segmenting the sounds in a word and choosing the correct letters needed to spell it.

The children work on the Letters and Sounds programme from phases 1-6, according to the phase of 'Letters and Sounds' they are working on. They receive at least 15-20 minutes focused phonics teaching each day.

Our phonics work is carefully tracked for each individual child so that additional support can be given where needed.

If you need any further information regarding phonics, please speak to your child's teacher.

Phonics Actions

For some children, using a movement or action when saying a sound or phoneme, helps them to remember it. This document will support parents and carers with some of the actions we use at school.

Phonics Activities

There are lots of games and activities that can help to support your child in learning to use their phonics knowledge. The link to the website below will provide lots of activities for you and your child to play together.

Phonic Pronunciation

We understand that many adults refer back to the way in which they were taught when applying phonic pronunciations. Click on the link below to hear the correct pronunciation of sounds.  This will help you to support your child in using their sounds in both reading and writing.

Additional Information for Parents/Carers

Spelling

At Westmeads spelling is taught in an investigative and creative way so that children can begin to see connections with phonics, letter patterns, rhyme and root words. This moves progressively as they move through the school building on the children's previous learning.

We have created our own method of checking children's progress in spelling called ' Big Spell, Beat the Bell.' It is based on the children practising small groups from their year group spelling lists and then writing or editing a set of spellings against the clock. The children seem to really enjoy this method of practising spellings and can work through them at their own pace.

This is reinforced with the children using an online website called 'Spelling Shed' for which they have their own log in and have access to at home and at school. 

Year Group Spelling Lists

Below are the National Curriculum lists of 'Common Exception Words' that children should be able to read by the end of each year. These are taught at school but it always helps if parents can practise these with their children too. Please ask your child's class teacher for ideas in how to best support your child with spelling.