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Curriculum

Getting Started With Phonics

If phonics terms leave you guessing, this is where to learn them, along with the daily routine that gets young children reading.

  • 30 minutes
  • 7 modules
  • 0.5 CPD hours
  • Certificate

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What you'll learn

  • Explain phoneme, grapheme, segmenting, blending and tricky words in plain terms
  • Follow a five-part routine for a daily phonics session
  • Model sounds accurately and gently correct children's pronunciation
  • Help children segment and blend simple CVC words
  • Use sorting games and silly soup to teach initial sounds

About this course

Phonics has its own vocabulary, and if nobody has ever explained the difference between a phoneme and a grapheme, it's hard to join in confidently when you're supporting a group.

Start here. You'll see how children move from hearing sounds to reading and writing simple words. Most daily sessions follow the same five-part routine: go back over old sounds, teach a new one, read words with it, write words with it, then practise tricky words. There's advice on modelling a sound cleanly, one short "t" rather than "t-t-t", and on helping a child segment and blend a word like "tin". Games such as silly soup make initial sounds stick.

It's the first of three phonics courses, and the other two build on what you learn here.

  • For early career teachers, parents and 3 other roles. Early years and primary.

7 modules

Open in order

  1. Introduction – what is phonics?

    2 min

  2. Why is phonics important in Early Years and KS1?

    1 question

    4 min

  3. How is phonics taught?

    1 question

    10 min

  4. Exploring key vocabulary used when referring to phonics

    1 question

    6 min

  5. How can you introduce initial sounds?

    1 question

    7 min

  6. How do pupils begin to read words?

  7. Wrap up

    3 min