What are some key ideas and phrases parents and carers should understand?
Special Friends: Two or more letters that make one sound, rather than individual sounds. These begin at the end of Set 1 and make up all sounds in Sets 2 and 3. Examples include: th, qu, ee, igh, ou, oi, a-e, air, ure. Children are taught to spot the special friends in a word before they work through each sound.
Fred Talk: The process of saying each sound in a word before blending the sounds together. After children spot any special friends (or say that there are none for simpler words), they say each sound either aloud or in their heads (Fred in your head). The children then blend the sounds together into the full word.
Red Words: The children also practise reading (and spelling) what are called ‘red words,’ such as ‘once,’ ‘call,’ ‘said’ and ‘where.’ These words do not follow phonics rules and must be remembered as they cannot be sounded out phonetically.
Decoding: The process of breaking a word down into its sounds, then blending the sounds together to say the whole word. Children first look for and say any special friends, then they Fred Talk each sound, and then they read the word.
Fluency: The skill of reading smoothly and quickly, which children develop after they learn phonics sounds and can decode words quickly.
Comprehension: The skill of understanding a story after reading it one or more times. Children can comprehend a story when they can talk about it and answer questions about what happened, what characters might be feeling, and what might happen next.