In Nursery phonics is taught daily, through multisensory play based activities. We follow the Letters and Sounds Phonics Programme. Letters and Sounds is a phonics resource that aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. 

Phase 1 consists of seven interlinking aspects:

Environmental sounds

Instrumental sounds

Body percussion

Rhythm and rhyme

Alliteration (words that begin with the same sound)

Voice sounds

Oral blending and segmenting 

You can help your child develop in each of these by trying some of the ideas below. Remember that all these activities should be fun and interactive. Give your child lots of encouragement and cuddles as you play together. Smiles and praise will help develop a sense of achievement and build confidence. The emphasis is on developing the ability to distinguish sounds and create sounds.

• Encourage your child to listen to sounds in the world around them, and copying the sounds (e.g. ‘can you make a car sound? What sound does a dog make?’)

• Use instruments and their own bodies and voices to make and copy sounds

• Listen out for rhythm and rhyme (e.g. spotting the rhyming words in a nursery rhyme)

• Listening to the sounds in spoken words and splitting a word into its separate sounds (e.g. ‘d-o-g’ makes ‘dog’)

• Use their hobbies and interests! If they’re into animals, see how many different animal noises they can make. Can they copy a sound you make, and tell you what the animal is? Or if they love trucks, cars and diggers, encourage them to make the appropriate noises when they are playing.

• When you’re out and about, listen out for sounds – birdsong, traffic noises, etc. Can your child tell you what made the sound? Can they copy it?

• Sing songs and say rhymes together. Can your child clap when they hear a rhyming word?

• Clap or tap a rhythm. Can your child copy it? Can they clap their own rhythm for you to copy?

•Sound lotto or bingo games

• If you’re ever concerned about your child’s reading, talk to one of the nursery staff. Tell them what you’ve noticed and ask for their advice.