Phonics and Early Reading

Our Phonics & Early Reading Lead is Joanne Downing.

Phonics is taught daily to children in Reception and Year 1 and follows a phonics scheme called ‘Little Wandle’ Letters and Sounds revised’. This is a structured, thorough and rigorous programme which teaches children the skills they need to read. All children learn alongside peers of similar secure phonic knowledge. Alongside our daily phonics lessons, each child takes part in three reading practice sessions a week. We have sets of wonderful new early reading books which are fully decodable for the children and entirely matched to the phonics scheme.

Children read in small groups and they read the same book three times with adults in school before bringing it home to read with you. Each read in school will have a different focus:

· Decoding – using phonics skills to blend words.

· Prosody – reading with rhythm, stress, and intonation.

· Comprehension – developing their understanding of the text.

When the children read the book with you at home, it will be to ‘show off’ the skills they have learnt, so you can see the wonderful progress they are making. We will send these books home, and kindly ask that you take great care of them, remembering to return to school on your child’s book changing day. Books are sent out on a Thursday and must be returned on the following Monday. It is of paramount importance that these books are returned each week and are in good condition as they are needed for other children. We don’t want to hinder children’s reading progress because we are missing 1 or 2 books within a set.

Supporting your child with reading is very important and although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home. ALL Reception and Year 1 children will be bringing home three different books each week: A reading practice book (Little Wandle), a sharing book and a library book.

The Little Wandle book – this will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently. This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
A sharing book- your child will not be expected to read this on their own because this book is for you to read and enjoy together. To encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure.
The third book sent home is a Library book which your child has chosen on their visit to our school library. Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read these books alone. Read it to or with them. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters; explore the facts in a non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun! REMEMBER children are never too old to be read to! Interesting facts:- Here’s how many words children would have heard by the time they were 5 years old: Never read to: 4,662 words; 1–2 times per week: 63,570 words; 3–5 times per week: 169,520 words; Daily: 296,660 words; and five books a day: 1,483,300 words. This demonstrates how powerful what you do at home impacts on your child’s speaking into reading into writing!