Phonics and Spellings

Welcome to the Phonics and Spellings page. On this page, you will find lots of useful resources to help you support your child at home with their phonics and spellings.

Below I have listed the 4 memory strategies that children have been taught to use in school, to help with decoding when reading and to help with their spellings when writing. The children are taught to use these 4 strategies when they are finding it tricky to decode or spell a word. Have a go at using these strategies with your child at home when they are doing their home learning.


1) Syllables - To learn my word I can listen to how many syllables there are so I can break it into smaller bits to remember (e.g. Sep-tem-ber,ba-by).
2) Base words - To learn my word I can find its base word (e.g. Smiling – base = smile +ing).
3) Analogy - To learn my word I can use words that I already know to help me (e.g. could: would, should).
4) Mnemonics - To learn my word I can make up a sentence to help me remember it (e.g. could – O U Lucky Duck; people – people eat orange peel like elephants).

At Woodmansterne Primary School, we follow the 'Letters and Sounds' programme in our phonics lessons. I have attached a link to the Letters and Sounds website, which shows how to practise saying the sounds at home with your child. From Year 3 upwards, class teachers follow the 'Support for Spelling' document which follows the same 4 phases as in the 'Letters and Sounds' programme:-

• Revisit and Review - reviewing previous sounds/spelling rules from previous sessions.
• Teach - learn a new sound/spelling rule.
• Practise - practise the new sound/spelling rule. This is usually a game or a short activity.
• Apply - demonstrate their understanding of the new sound/spelling rule. Teachers assesses the children's understanding.

In the next month, we are going to be holding some drop in sessions for parents/carers to observe phonics lessons in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. We look forward to seeing you there :-)