Progression in Phonics, Spelling and Handwriting

Year / Phonics Framework References / Spelling Framework References / Handwriting Framework Reference
EYFS
AUT / Phase 1 – Consolidate pre-Reception learning
Oral segmenting and blending introduced in Aspect 7
Continues through all Phases
Phase 2
19 grapheme-phoneme correspondences
Set 1: s a t p Set 2: i n m d
Set 3: g o c k Set4: ck e u r / Pupils should be taught to:
  • Use a pencil and hold it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which are formed correctly.
Resources
Sheffield Structured Materials
  • Individual Letter Formation Sheets

EYFS
SPR / Set 5: h b f, ff l, llss
Phase 3
25 more grapheme-phoneme correspondences
Set 6: j v w x Set 7: y z, zzqu
EYFS
SUM / Phase 3 two and three letter graphemes: ch, shth ng aieeighoaooar or ur owoi ear air ureer
Y1 AUT / Phase 4
No new graphemes
Consolidation of above to read and spell words containing adjacent consonants and to read and spell polysyllabic words-segmenting to spell, blending to read / Year 1 children will learn spellings of words that have particular patterns, for example:
  • Words ending ff, ck, zz, ll, ss such as 'fluff', 'luck', 'buzz', 'fill' and 'kiss'
  • Words ending nk such as 'bunk' and 'sink'
  • Words with twosyllables, such as 'ticket' and 'kitchen'
  • Words ending ve such as 'have' and 'live'
/ Common exception words require regular revisiting and consolidation across the year
Y1 Common exception words: the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our / Pupils should be taught to:
  • sit correctly at a table, holding a pencil comfortably and correctly
  • begin to form lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place
  • form capital letters
  • form digits 0-9
  • understand which letters belong to which handwriting ‘families’ (i.e. letters that are formed in similar ways) and to practise these.
Resources
Sheffield Structured Materials
  • Individual Letter Formation Sheets – lowercase
  • CAPITALS 1

Y1 SPR / Phase 5
New graphemes, alternative pronunciations for those already known and alternative spellings for phonemes
New graphemes: ay (day) ou (out) ie (tie) ea (east) oy (boy) ir (girl) ue (blue) aw (saw) wh (when) ph (photo) ew (new) oe (toe) au (Paul) Split digraphs a-e (make) e-e (these) i-e (like) o-e (home) u-e (rule) /
  • Adding -es to the end of plurals and verbs, for example: 'hutch' becomes 'hutches' and 'stitch' becomes 'stitches'
  • Adding -ing, -ed and -er to words, such as: 'jump' which changes to 'jumping', 'jumped' and 'jumper'
  • Adding 'er' and 'est' to adjectives to make the comparative and superlative form, such as 'kind' which changes to 'kinder' and 'kindest'

Y1 SUM / New pronunciations for known graphemes:i (fin, find), o (hot, cold), c (cat, cent), g (got, giant), u (but, put (in south of England), ow (cow, blow), ie (tie, field), ea (eat, bread), er (farmer, her), a (hat, what), y (yes, by, very), ch (chin, school, chef), ou (out, shoulder, could, you)
Alternative spellings for phonemes:
See page 144-‘Letters and Sounds’-Teaching alternative spellings for phonemes
See page 154 ‘Letters and Sounds’-Bank of words and other materials/activities for Phase 5. /
  • Words ending y, such as 'happy' and 'funny'
  • Words containing ph or wh, such as 'telephone' and 'which'
  • Adding theprefixun- to change the meaning of a word, for example: 'fit' to 'unfit'
  • Compound words, which are words made up of two short words, such as 'football' and 'playground'

Y2 AUT / Phase 6
Consolidation of all of above. / In their weekly spelling lists, children will cover various spelling patterns, including the following:
  • Silent letters k, g and w (as in 'knock', 'gnat' and 'write')
  • Words ending le, el, al and il (as in 'meddle', 'tunnel', 'animal', 'pencil')
  • Verbs ending y which then changes to ies and ied (as in 'copy', 'copies' and 'copied')
  • Dropping the e off the end of a word when adding -ing, -ed, -er (as in 'hiking', 'hiked' and 'hiker')
/ Common exception words require regular revisiting and consolidation across the year
Y2 Common exception words: door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind, child, children*, wild, climb, most, only, both, old, cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great, break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past, father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas / Pupils should be taught to:
  • form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another
  • start using some of the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined
  • write capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower case letters
  • use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters.
Resources
Sheffield Structured Materials
  • Individual Letter Formation Sheets
  • Lessons 1-12
  • CAPITALS 2
  • DATES

Y2 SPR / Children apply skills and knowledge learned above to become fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers. /
  • Words which need a consonant to be doubled before adding -ing, -ed (as in 'pat', 'patting', 'patted')
  • Unusual uses of vowels, such as 'o' being used for the 'u' sound ('other') and 'a' being used for the 'o' sound ('warm')
  • Words containingsuffixes(groups of letters added to the end of a word) including -ly, -ment, -ful, -ness and -less

Y2 SUM / Past tense words
Adding Suffixes/prefixes to make longer words
Tricky ‘bits’ in words and use of memory strategies /
  • Words whereapostrophesare used to show contractions, such as: 'do not' changing to 'don't'
  • Words ending -tion such as ('fiction')
  • Homophones, which are pairs of words that sound the same, but are spelt differently (such as: 'hear' and 'here')

Y3 / In Years 3 and 4, the following spelling rules and patterns will be taught:
  • Adding suffixes -er, -ing to verbs, for example: 'beginner' and 'beginning'
  • Words containing 'y' where it sounds like 'i', such as 'myth' and 'gym'
  • Words containing 'ou' where it sounds like 'u' such as 'young' and 'touch'
  • Words containingprefixes(groups of letters added to the start of a word) such as mis-, dis-, im-, il-, ir-, re-, sub-, inter-, super-, anti-, auto-
  • Words containingsuffixes(groups of letters added to the end of each word) such as -ation, -ly
/ Pupils should be taught to:
  • Use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined

Y4 /
  • Words ending -sure and -ture (such as 'measure' and 'creature')
  • Words ending -sion, -tion, -ssion, -cian (such as 'confusion', 'rejection', 'permission' and 'musician')
  • Words ending -ous (such as 'dangerous' and 'courageous')
  • Words containing ch where it sounds like ‘sh’ or ‘k’ (such as 'chef' and 'scheme')
  • Words ending -gue and -que (such as 'league' and 'antique')
  • Homophones(pairs of words that sound the same but are spelleddifferently, for example: 'meddle' and 'medal')
/
  • Increase the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting [for example, by ensuring that the down strokes of letters are parallel and equidistant; that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch].

Y5 / In Years 5 and 6, the following spelling rules and patterns will be taught:
  • Words ending -cious and -tious such as 'delicious' and 'superstitious'
  • Words ending -cial and -tial such as 'special' and 'partial'
  • Words ending -ant, -ance and -ancy such as 'hesitant', 'hesitance' and 'hesitancy'
  • Words ending -ent, -ence and -ency such as ‘patient’, ‘patience’ and ‘frequency’
  • Words ending -able / -ably and -ible / -ibly such as 'comfortable' / 'comfortably' and 'horrible' / 'horribly'
/ Pupils should be taught to:
  • Write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed by:
  • Choosing which shape of a letter to use when given choices and deciding whether or not to join specific letters
  • Choosing the writing implement that is best suited for a task.
Resources
Sheffield Structured Materials
  • Lessons 1-12 (Recap as appropriate)
  • Practice Pieces

Y6 /
  • Adding -ing / -ed to words ending -fer, for example: 'prefer', 'preferring' and 'preferred'
  • Use of the hyphen, for example: 'co-ordinate', 're-enter'
  • Words containing ie / ei, for example: 'piece' and 'ceiling'
  • Words containing ough and looking at the different sounds this grapheme makes in different words, for example: 'enough', 'through', 'although', 'plough'
  • Silent letters in words such as 'doubt', 'thistle' and 'knight'
  • Homophones(words which sound the same but are spelleddifferently) for example: 'principle' and 'principal'