Phonics in the English National Curriculum

The Department for Education National Curriculum for England sets out expectations for the development of pupils' reading and writing skills. Within the reading curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on supporting pupils to become fluent readers during primary school. In writing, a key focus is helping pupils understand the relationship between sounds and letters in order to develop accurate spelling.

Phonics plays a significant role in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. It supports children in learning how spoken sounds (phonemes) relate to written symbols (graphemes), known as Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs), which underpin early reading and spelling.

This article provides an overview of how phonics features within the English National Curriculum. Schools use a range of systematic synthetic phonics programmes to meet these curriculum requirements, and the organisation and terminology used may vary between programmes.

Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage prepares children for the transition into Year 1. During this stage, children are introduced to phonics to help them begin understanding the relationship between letters and sounds, supporting early decoding and word reading. As beginning writers, children are encouraged to use their phonics knowledge to represent sounds in writing, rather than spell words accurately.

(Source: Department for Education: Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, 31 March 2014)

Key Stage 1: Year 1

Reading

Building on the phonic knowledge gained in their Foundation Year, pupils practise sounding out and blending the sounds of unfamiliar words, and increase their reading ability by learning more GPCs. As they continue to practise their sounding out and blending skills, these become easier and less overt, and their decoding becomes smoother.

By the end of Year 1, the curriculum sets out the following statutory expectations for pupils:

Name the letters of the alphabet;
Use the names of the alphabet letters to distinguish alternative spellings of the same sound (e.g. to, too, two);
Use spelling rules for making words plural by adding "s" or "es";
Use spelling rules for adding the third person singular marker to verbs (For example, change "I look" to "she looks"; "I dance" to "He dances");
Add "ing" and "ed" to verbs (e.g. change "help" to "helping" or "helped");
Add "er" and "est" endings to nouns (e.g. change "help" to "helper" and adjectives (e.g. change "quick" to "quicker" or "quickest");
Apply simple spelling rules

Writing

Writing is a much more complex skill than reading. Learners need to develop the physical skill of holding a pencil and making legible letters. They also need to transpose the sounds of words they hear into written symbols. Therefore, writing does not generally develop as quickly as reading. The expectation for Year 1 is that pupils write simple dictated sentences using familiar GPCs and common exception words (words for which phonics does not "work" because they do not follow regular spelling rules).

Key Stage 1: Year 2

Reading

At the start of Year 2, many pupils are able to read common words by sight without blending sounds, are familiar with common exception words such as "you", "many" and "people", and can sound out unfamiliar words using their knowledge of common graphemes.

If a pupil's knowledge of phonics is not sufficiently developed for Year 2, teachers are advised to help them to catch up by using the Year 1 reading and spelling programmes.

The focus of Year 2 is to build on pupils' prior knowledge to improve their reading accuracy and fluency. Statutory requirements include the following:

Pupils' decoding skills become automatic
Their reading becomes fluent and accurate
They can read books of a suitable reading level aloud, easily sounding out unfamiliar words
They can read most familiar words quickly and accurately
They can read words of two or more syllables that contain familiar graphemes
They recognise alternate sounds represented by specific graphemes

Spelling

The Year 2 curriculum begins with revision of alphabet letters and their sounds, including consonant and vowel two-letter combinations or digraphs. An example of a consonant digraph is "ph" which represents the sound "f", while an example of a vowel digraph is the combination of "a" and "i" in the word "hair".

Pupils also begin to learn some of the irregularities of English spelling. They are introduced to the fact that grapheme/phoneme correspondence in English is sometimes irregular and that there is not always a logical connection between sound and symbol. They learn to spell common exception words and become familiar with some of the quirky spelling variations which make reading English such a challenge. These include:

Words with silent letters, such as "write" and "knight";
Different ways to spell the same sound (homophones), such as "night" and "knight", or "write" and "right", which sound alike but have different meanings;
Irregular readings that do not correspond with spelling, such as the "le" ending in words like "table".

(Source: Department for Education: National Curriculum in England, September 2013. English Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2)

When parents understand how phonics supports reading and writing in the curriculum, they are better placed to support their child's learning, notice when additional help may be needed, and discuss progress confidently with teachers.

Phonics Bloom provides games and practice activities that can be used alongside a range of systematic synthetic phonics programmes to support children working within the English National Curriculum.

Continue reading: The Year 1 'Phonics Screening Check'