In Year 1, the children will start ‘Phase 5’ phonics during week 4 of the Autumn term.

During this phase, children will be introduced to ‘new digraphs’ as well as lots of alternative spellings of previously learnt sounds.

Digraph – A grapheme using two letters to represent one phoneme. With children, we frequently reinforce it with the mantra ‘two letters, one sound’. At the appropriate stage, it is useful for children to learn to use the term and to understand what it means.

Trigraph – A grapheme using three letters to represent one phoneme. With children, we frequently reinforce it with the mantra ‘three letters, one sound’. At the appropriate stage, it is useful for children to learn to use the term and to understand what it means.