PHONICS

 

 

About ELS:

Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) is our chosen Phonics programme. The aim of ELS is ‘Getting all children to read well, quickly’. It teaches children to read by identifying the phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) and graphemes (the written version of the sound) within words and using these to read words.

The programme is designed for children aged 4-7. However, at Castledon we use a stage not age approach, so the ELS programme is used with pupils ranging from 5 to 16 years.

 

 

How ELS is taught at Castledon:                    

Phonics is explicitly taught every day during a dedicated slot on the timetable. Children are given the knowledge and the skills to then apply this independently. 

We follow the ELS SEND progression and sequence. This allows our children to practise their existing phonic knowledge whilst building their understanding of the ‘code’ of our language GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence). As a result, our children can tackle any unfamiliar words that they might discover. 

The structure of ELS lessons allows children to know what is coming next, what they need to do, and how to achieve success. This makes it easier for children to learn the GPCs we are teaching (the alphabetic code) and how to apply this when reading.

We begin by teaching the single letter sounds before moving to digraphs ‘sh’ (two letters spelling one sound), trigraphs ‘igh’ (three letters spelling one sound) and quadgraphs ‘eigh’ (four letters spelling one sound). 

We teach children to: 

• Decode (read) by identifying each sound within a word and blending them together to read fluently 
• Encode (write) by segmenting each sound to write words accurately. 

 

Pronouncing the Pure Sounds
When children are learning to read, to enable them to blend sounds together to form words, we need to pronounce the sound clearly.

You can use these examples below to support you:

 Phase 2 sounds

 Phase 3 Pronunciation 

 Phase 5 Pronunciation

 

Reading for children on the ELS programme:      

Children experience the joy of books and language whilst rapidly acquiring the skills they need to become fluent independent readers and writers. ELS teaches relevant, useful and ambitious vocabulary to support each child’s journey to becoming fluent and independent readers. 

Throughout the day, children will use their growing Phonics knowledge to support them in other areas of the curriculum and will have many opportunities to practise their reading. This includes reading 1:1 with a member of staff as well as daily class storytimes. 

How can I help my child at home?

To best support your child when they are learning to read, we suggest that you read a decodable text provided online by the school 4 times across the week. Spending 10 minutes a day reading with your child will hugely support them in their journey to becoming an independent reader.

Texts are provided on Oxford Owl which can be accessed here using your child’s log in.
If you are unsure of your child’s log in please contact your child’s class teacher. 

It is a key part of learning to read that children re-read words and sentences that they can decode (sound out) until they are fluent (read with ease and precision). By reading texts several times children have the greatest opportunity to achieve this fluency.

The texts provided online by your child’s school are carefully matched to the teaching taking place. Your child will be practising what they have been taught in school with you at home. Your child should be able to decode and read their phonics book independently, though they may need some support with blending at the beginning of their reading journey. There will be some words that are not decodable, we call these ‘harder to read and spell’, you can help your child with these words when they are reading.

 

It is important to encourage your child to experience a wide range and variety of books beyond ELS, however, please read these texts to them so that they can engross themselves within and enjoy the content of the text. 

Mrs Edwards - ELS Lead Teacher

If you have questions about ELS or would like more information, contact the school who can direct your question to Mrs Edwards via admin@castledon.org.