Listening to our pupils and giving them opportunities to share their views is vital to the success of our school! This term we talked to them about settling in to school, phonics and other aspects of school life. Here are some of the things they told us about Phonics and the start of term. 

 

Phonics voice Autumn 2022 

 

Reception children

 

What is phonics?  

You have to do your letters. It makes you read and very smart when you grow up. 

It's when you get to learn letters. 

 

How does phonics help us? 

 

It helps you read. 

It helps you write. 

 

How do teachers teach phonics?  

We use our ears to hear sounds the teachers tell us.  

The teachers go our turn, your turn, in and out. It is funny.  

 

How can we make phonics lessons better for you?  

 

More games like shuffle time. 

 

What is shuffle time?  

It is a game where she shuffles the cards. Miss Doyle when we do shuffle time the new sound we are learning always ends up at the front. It is very funny.  

 

KS1 children 

 

What is phonics?  

When we learn new sounds. 

It's fun we learn new sounds to sound out.  

It’s when we sound out and blend.  

 

How does phonics help us?  

It helps us to read. 

By sounding out we can learn to read.  

To learn to read actual story books. 

To read small words. 

 

How do teachers make phonics fun for you?  

Bingo games. 

By covering up words and we guess sounds by looking carefully. 

They play games you have to find a word, you read it, they hide it then you find it. 

They mix things up. I know another word for mix, amalgamate.  

 

How could we make phonics lessons better at Carrington Infant School?  

Add more time so we can write down more.  

Add more games 

More sounds to learn, make it trickier so we learn more.  

Longer words  

Throw word cards to children in the class and see if they can catch them. 

Add art to phonics so we draw. 

Add maths to phonics so we have numbers and number words in phonics. 

Add science words to phonics. 

 

 

Dana asked me why do we call it phonics?  

 

I explained phonics is short for phonology which means sounds. Phonics = teaching sounds. We teach reading through sounds and that’s why it is called phonics.  

 

Pupil voice about starting school in September

 

 

Reception children 

 

How did you feel about starting big school?  

 

‘Excited, happy and good.’  

 

Why?  

I like crafting. The adults are happy and smiley. I like dancing, I love all the toys here.’ 

 

How could we make your start here at Carrington even better?  

‘More time to run and more time to eat our lunch.’ 

 

 

KS1 children 

How did you feel about coming back to Carrington School after the summer holidays? Why?  

 

‘Excited, because of Forest School. ‘ 

Nervous, I haven’t seen my friends for a while and they might not be friends with me anymore.’ 

 ‘Happy.’ 

 ‘Sad because I had to leave my mummy at home.’ 

‘Happy because I was going to see my friend Jax.’  

Great because I wanted to see my friends.’  

 

What would have helped you feel more confident about coming back to school?  

 

‘Going for a walk around the playground before the start of term.’  

‘More stuff on the playground on the first day.’ 

 ‘A long play in the playground before the whistle on the first day.’ 

‘Having a special fun activity day on the first day of school. ‘ 

 

Do you feel safe at Carrington Infant School?  

 

7out of the 8 children said they felt safe. The child who said he didn’t feel safe couldn’t articulate why he felt this way. 

 

How can we make you feel safer at Carrington Infant School?  

 

‘More assemblies about bullies.’ 

‘Remind us of safety rules.’  

‘More fire practices.’

 

 

The children were overwhelmingly positive about the start of term.  They happily discussed the positive elements of the school. One boy talked about feeling sad but his friends all helped him feel better as soon as he got to school.  

 

Staff have seen the majority of children happily running into school with smiles on their faces in the first two weeks of term.  

 

We will reflect on the comments regarding the children being able to come into the school playground to familiarize themselves with the school environment before the start of the school year.