British-curriculum schools teach early reading through systematic phonics: teaching children the sounds that letters make, and how to blend those sounds into words. It is the most researched approach to early reading, and it gives children a reliable way to read words they have never seen before.
How phonics works
- Hearing sounds. Children first learn to hear the separate sounds in spoken words, through songs, rhymes and games.
- Matching sounds to letters. Each sound is linked to a letter or group of letters (for example "sh" or "ee").
- Blending. Children say the sounds in a word in order and push them together to read it: c-a-t, cat.
- Segmenting. The reverse, for spelling: hearing a word and writing its sounds.
- Tricky words. Common words that don't follow the rules, learned by sight.
What to expect, year by year
- Nursery: listening games, rhymes and hearing the first sounds in words.
- Reception: the main letter sounds, blending simple words, reading short sentences.
- Year 1: more complex sounds and spellings, reading with growing fluency.
- Year 2: decoding becomes automatic, so attention moves to understanding and expression.
How to help at home
- Read aloud every day, well beyond the books your child can read alone.
- Practise sounds, not letter names, when helping with reading: "sss" rather than "ess".
- Let your child blend. Point to each sound and let them push them together.
- Keep it short and warm. Five relaxed minutes beats a long battle.
At Elyton
Elyton teaches systematic phonics from the Early Years, alongside a great deal of reading aloud. See how it continues in Nursery, Reception and Key Stage 1.
