Ages 3-5 (EYFS)

Phonics

In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), phonics is a crucial method used to teach children how to read and write. It works by breaking words down into their smallest units of sound (phonemes) and teaching children how to link these sounds to written letters (graphemes).

1. The Core Mechanics: Blending and Segmenting

Phonics learning in the early years focuses on two main skills that develop hand-in-hand:

• Decoding (Reading / Blending): Children learn to recognize the letters in a word, say the individual sounds, and then “blend” them together to read the word.
• Example: Hearing the sounds /c/ – /a/ – /t/ and merging them to say cat.
• Encoding (Writing / Segmenting): Children listen to a whole word and chop it up into its individual sounds so they can write the corresponding letters.
• Example: Hearing the word dog and identifying that it is made of the sounds /d/ – /o/ – /g/.

2. The Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) Approach

EYFS settings follow a Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme. “Systematic” means the sounds are taught in a specific, rigorous order (usually starting with the easiest and most common sounds like s, a, t, p), rather than randomly.

The learning is typically broken down into progressive phases:

Phase 1: Environmental and Sound Awareness

Before children look at letters, they must develop their listening skills. This involves:

• Distinguishing between environmental sounds, instrumental sounds, and body percussion.
• Exploring rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration.
• Oral blending: Playing games like “I spy a b-u-s” so children learn to hear how sounds merge before they even read text.

Phase 2: Introduction of Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs)

Children are introduced to single-letter sounds. They learn to read and write these letters and quickly begin blending them to read simple CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words like sat, pin, and tap.

Phase 3: Digraphs and Trigraphs

Children move on to represent sounds that require more than one letter:

• Digraphs: Two letters that make one sound (e.g., ch in chip, sh in shop, ee in feet).
• Trigraphs: Three letters that make one sound (e.g., igh in night, ear in dear).

Phase 4: Consonant Clusters (Often taught at the end of Reception)

Children practice reading and writing words with adjacent consonants, such as bl-e-nd, fr-o-g, or t-e-n-t.

3. “Tricky” or Common Exception Words

Not all words in the English language can be phonetically decoded using basic phonics rules at an early stage (e.g., the, to, go, no, sail, he). In EYFS, these are often introduced as “tricky words.” Children are taught to identify the part of the word that is “tricky” and memorize the word by sight so their reading flow isn’t disrupted.

4. How it is Taught in EYFS

Because EYFS children learn best through engagement, phonics instruction balances adult-led teaching with playful reinforcement:

• Daily Discrete Sessions: Short, snappy 15-to-20-minute daily lessons that follow a strict Review, Teach, Practice, Apply cycle.
• Multisensory Learning: Using physical actions (like Jolly Phonics gestures), songs, writing letters in sand, or forming letters with playdough to help muscle memory.
• Phonics-Rich Environment: Labels around the classroom, interactive sound walls, and accessible reading corners.
• Decodable Books: Children are given reading books that strictly match the phonics phase they are currently learning. This builds immense confidence, as they can read 100% of the book by sounding it out, rather than guessing based on pictures.

By the end of the EYFS (Reception year), the goal is for children to comfortably read familiar words and simple sentences, decode simple phonetically regular words, and use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways that match their spoken sounds.

As tutors we can work with whichever phonics scheme your child’s school use. Whilst this is most commonly RWI phonics, we have experience of other schemes including Jolly Phonics but can adapt teaching to any scheme.