EARLY READING WITH PHONICS BUG

What is Phonics?

Phonics is the teaching of reading and spelling.Children are first taught the sounds and names of each letter and groups of letters. Once children know the sounds they are taught to blend them together so they can read words. They are also taught to segment, or break up, words to help them spell. 

How is Phonics taught at Northway?

At Northway, we use 'Bug Club Phonics' which is a scheme that systematically develops your child's phonic knowledge.In the infants, children have daily phonics lessons, lasting 20 minutes, and are taught letter sounds to ensure they succeed in early reading and spelling.

Each unit of phonics focuses on one or more key sounds. Throughout the unit, they practise recognising the sound by itself (phoneme), how the sound is written (grapheme) and then reading the sound within a word and writing the sound within a word. Bug Club Phonics is a very structured programme and to help children achieve success, teachers will give your child carefully matched books to their phonic understanding. 

Bug Club Phonics also has an online element so your child can practise the phonics sounds through reading matched e-books and playing sound games. 

What books will my child bring home?

Your child will bring home two reading books per week.

One book will have a Phonics Bug book with this symbol (see above). This book is matched to your child's phonic ability. This is known as a phonetically-decodable book. Phonetically decodable means that children can sound out or read most of the words by sight.

One book will be a Library book with this symbol (see above). This book is NOT at a level which your child can read independently but it is to be shared together. The purpose of this book is to expose your child to a broad and varied range of vocabulary beyond their reading ability. Your child will be encouraged to choose this independently to promote a love of reading. 

Your child will also be assigned online reading books and games, matched to the sounds they have been learning in school. This is accessed through the 'Activelearn' website and your child's login details are recorded in their Reading Diary.

Activelearn https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/login?c=0

Additional Information

Please see the document below for more information about how to access these resources and support your child at home.

Files to Download