At Northlands, we follow the Jolly Phonics programme to give children a strong foundation in early reading and writing. Phonics is a key part of learning in Reception, as it underpins everything from sounding out words to building confident, independent readers and writers.

Each letter of the alphabet is introduced with:

• A sound (what the letter says, not its name)

• An action (to help remember the sound)

• A song (to make learning fun)

• A story (to bring the sound to life

To begin with, we teach one new sound each day, helping children to steadily build their knowledge of the alphabetic code. Once children are confident with individual letter sounds, we move on to digraphs—these are two letters that come together to make one sound, such as:

• ch as in chop

• sh as in ship

• th as in thin

• ai as in rain

After the sounds have been taught, we focus on applying this knowledge in both reading and writing. Children are encouraged to blend sounds to read words and segment words to spell them.

Phonics is taught in a fun, engaging, and practical way to ensure children develop a love of reading and writing from the very beginning.

✨ Our Phonics Journey

Children begin their phonics journey by learning VC (vowel-consonant) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words such as:

• VC words: at, in, on, up

• CVC words: cat, dog, pen, sun

As their confidence grows, they move on to words containing digraphs—two letters that make one sound—like:

• ch, sh, th, ng, ai, ee, oa, oo

• Example words: chip, shop, thing, rain, feet, boat, moon

 

 Blending & Reading Sentences

Once children are secure in blending sounds to read individual words, we begin introducing short captions and simple sentences.

Examples of captions:

• A red bus

• The hot sun

• Dog on a log

Examples of simple sentences:

• The dog is in the van.

• I can see a ship.

• She has a long green coat.

These help children apply their phonics knowledge in context and build their comprehension skills.

❗Tricky Words

Alongside phonics, children also learn to recognise tricky words—words that cannot be easily sounded out using phonics. These words need to be learned by sight.

Examples of tricky words:

• the, to, go, no, said, come, was, you

We support children in identifying and remembering tricky words through repeated exposure and visual strategies.

�� Supporting Reading at Home

We encourage families to support phonics learning at home by:

• Listening to your child read regularly

• Sharing stories together 

• Practising tricky words together

• Playing phonics games and reviewing sound cards

Together, we can help every child develop a lifelong love of reading.