What is phonics?

Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write by helping them understand the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and letters or groups of letters (graphemes). It teaches children to hear and recognise sounds in words, and how to match these sounds to letters. The goal is for children to be able to read new words by sounding them out and blending the sounds together. Phonics helps children learn how to read and write by understanding how letters and sounds work together.

Monster Phonics

At Woodcote we follow the 'Monster Phonics' programme to teach our children. The Monster Phonics Approach uses visual cues and multisensory teaching as an enhanced method of systematic synthetic phonics which significantly improves progress. 

Each sound is represented by a different monster. The children recognise the monster and, as such, will understand the sound (phoneme) that is made by the letter(s) (grapheme).

Phonics Screening Information

The phonics screening check is taken individually by all children in Year 1. It is a nationally required assessment which takes place in June.

There are two sections in this 40-word check, and it assesses phonics skills and knowledge learnt through Reception and Year 1. Your child will read up to four words per page and they will probably do the check in one sitting of about 5–10 minutes.

What does it check?

• Sound out and blend graphemes in order to read simple words.
• Read phonically decodable one-syllable and two-syllable words, e.g. cat, sand, windmill.
• Read a selection of nonsense words which are referred to as pseudo words.

Why do we test alien (pseudo) words?

These are words that are phonically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning, e.g. brip, snorb. Pseudo words are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using phonics skills and not their memory.

The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of a monster, and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of monster it is by reading the word. This not only makes the check a bit more fun, but provides the children with a context for the nonsense word which is independent of any existing vocabulary they may have. Crucially, it does not provide any clues, so your child just has to be able to decode it.

Why do we test?

It is designed to give teachers and parents information on how your child is progressing in phonics. It will help to identify whether your child needs additional support at this stage so that they do not fall behind in this vital early reading skill.

What does it look like for my child?

There are 4 words on each page that your child will read systematically as the teacher/assessor scores in a discrete manner. For an example of both the screening test and the teachers' mark sheet, please look at the documents attached to this page.