When we think of phonics, we might think about our systematic, synthetic phonics programme that often ends at Key Stage One, but should phonics really end there? The simple answer is no. Phonics is a key part of reading and spelling beyond Key Stage One. Here are eight key takeaways of why phonics is important for all children.  

Read part one of this blog series, which focuses on spelling skills.  

What is phonics?  

Phonics is often seen as a way of teaching children how to read, but its role in teaching spelling is often dismissed.  

If we look at the Google definition of ‘phonics’ below, it emphasises its role in teaching reading but not writing.  

The definition below from Jolliffe, Waugh & Gill is a lot more suitable.

“Phonics is an umbrella term that includes the development of phonemic awareness (the ability to discriminate and manipulate phonemes) and the ability to map the graphemes (letters or groups of letters) to phonemes (the smallest units of sound in a word). A further important aspect is the ability to blend the phonemes to make words, or the reverse – the ability to segment words into their constituent phonemes, required for spelling.” _{Jolliffe, Waugh & Gill (2022, p. 7)} 

_{Phonological Awareness: The ability to work with the sounds of language, even without consideration of its meaning.} 

_{Phonemic Awareness: The ability to distinguish between phonemes (sounds) in spoken words.} 

1. Phonics is key.  

“An effective speller draws upon the entire rich linguistic tapestry of a word to spell it correctly. The threads of this tapestry can be identified as phonological knowledge (including phonemic awareness), orthographic knowledge, morphological knowledge (which includes semantic knowledge), etymological knowledge and visual knowledge (Apel et al., 2004a, b; Henry, 1989; Masterson and Apel, 2010).”Adoniou (2014, p. 145) 

Phonological knowledge is just one element of being an effective speller, but it is a key element and the foundation for teaching spelling.  

2. The alphabetic code is too big and complex to have been ‘cracked’ by the end of Year 2.

When phonics is taught in Key Stage One, it is initially the simple alphabetic code. For example, the graphemes shown on the alphabetic code chart below show how the phonemes on the left are initially taught. This would usually be in your phonics lessons.  

Children will then build on this in their phonics lessons by learning the next part of the code.   

 However, we know that the alphabetic code does not end there. Below are some of the more complex graphemes used to represent the phonemes on the left. 

We don’t need to explicitly teach every single one of these graphemes, but they will come up as we are spelling and reading. So, it is important to highlight them. Often these more complex parts of the code have morphological, etymological or orthographical reasons behind them, which we can also explore with children.  

Remember, phonics is just one of the layers of teaching spelling.  

3. Developing your phonological knowledge doesn’t have an end. 

We often get new phonics knowledge much later than when we are learning the initial code. For example, in the words below we have the ‘é’ grapheme representing the /a/ sound.  

Although this wouldn’t be taught in our initial teaching of phonics, it is a grapheme that we may come across when reading and spelling. By knowing that this grapheme represents the /a/ sound, we can apply this knowledge when reading and spelling the following words:  

By exploring the etymology of these words, we can explain why they are spelled the way they are. This grapheme originates from France. Some people would argue it is not part of the English language, but these words are in our language, so we cannot just discount certain words.  

4. Phonics isn’t flashcards. 

Phonics is not flashcards. Just because we can identify sounds in words, it does not mean we need to teach them in isolation like you might do for the initial parts of teaching the alphabetic code. For the more complex parts of the alphabet code, it is much more about seeing the graphemes in words and sentences because the context makes it relevant.  

5. Different layers of the word allow for a broader understanding for children.  

By looking at the different layers of words, we allow children to gain a broader understanding. It gives them a range of ‘methods’ when working with words.  

For example, the word ‘musician’.  

6. The National Curriculum highlights the importance of phonics beyond Key Stage one.  

“The rules and guidance are intended to support the teaching of spelling. Phonic knowledge should continue to underpin spelling after key stage 1; teachers should still draw pupils’ attention to GPCs that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far. Increasingly, however, pupils also need to understand the role of morphology and etymology. DfE (2013, p. 49) 

The National Curriculum Spelling appendix acknowledges that phonics should continue to underpin spelling beyond Key Stage one. It recognises that phonics schemes do not teach everything that we need to know about phonics.  

7. We are not transitioning away from phonics.  

‘Phonics remains a cornerstone in teaching spelling. The EEF research emphasises the importance of explicitly teaching the relationship between letters and sounds. Integrating systematic phonics instruction into KS2 classrooms can significantly boost students’ spelling accuracy.’ 

Instead of thinking of spelling as teaching one element after another, where phonics comes first, followed by morphology, followed by etymology, we need to think of it as a whole approach where we draw on the elements to create an effective approach to teaching spelling.  

This is just as important in Key Stage One. We need to be exploring morphology and incorporating orthography and looking at some etymology. We cannot just teach phonics in Key Stage One.

In Key Stage Two, we need to continue to develop our phonological knowledge. We need to tie phonics into the Key Stage Two context, further build on phonological knowledge from Key Stage One to cement the lessons we have learned in Key Stage One. 

8. Not having phonics is limiting.  

“Children who have been taught phonics also tend to read more accurately than those taught using other methods, such as ‘look and say’. This includes children who find learning to read difficult, for example those who have dyslexia.” DfE (2023) 

If we do not teach phonics at all, we are teaching children to learn by sight. Learning by sight limits children to only know the words that they have been directly taught. With the average person having between 20,000 to 40,000 words in their vocabulary, you can easily see why ‘look and say’ is not going to be feasible. Where phonics often falls down for children is when it is taught as the only approach, particularly in words where morphemes, syllables or etymology would be far more useful roots into the words.  

Download your FREE alphabetic code here.  

Video Webinar Recording: How to Teach Spelling Effectively – Part Two: Phonics for All 

Watch this free webinar recording. 

Read How to Teach Spelling Effectively – Part Three here.

References: