Phonics
Following an update from the DfE around phonics teaching we have moved to Essential Letters and Sounds, this is a phonics programme based on Letters and Sounds (2007). This new phonics programme will support your children in making quick progress to become fluent and confident readers.
What is ‘Essential Letters and Sounds’?
Essential Letters and Sounds is a validated systematic synthetic phonics programme which we started following in September 2021. This replaces our previous phonics programme and does come with some changes.
The main changes are:
How can I support my child at home?
My child cannot read the book. What can I do?
Any books that are not yet decodable for the children will be a sharing book. These books are there for you to read with your child, helping us to instil a love of reading. These could be read together, with your child reading the words they are able to decode or could be read to your child.
A sheet with the focus sounds will be sent alongside your child’s phase 5 book. This is so that you can see the phase 5 sounds your child has been taught that are included in the book. Please use this sheet with your child to help them recognise the sounds, the mnemonic and an example word with the sound in taken from the book.
Your child will also be sent a book which is decodable for them or targets gaps in their phase 3 sound knowledge.
We need to read the book 4 times a week. How should I do this?
It is a key part of learning to read that children re-read words and sentences that they can decode (sound out) until they are fluent (read with ease and precision). By reading texts several times children have the greatest opportunity to achieve this fluency.
The following steps are a suggestion of how you could make the four reads slightly different and more interesting to your child:
First read
Focus on understanding and enjoying the book.
Second read
Encourage fluent sounding out and blending.
Third read
Word Sparks: Look in more detail at the focus words (underlined words)
Hero Academy: Look at Developing vocabulary section on the inside of the front cover
Alien Adventure: Look at Challenge words section on the inside of the front cover
Fourth read
Read the book with increasing fluency.
My child is a confident reader and can read the book fluently. What else can I do?
If your child has recieved a book that they have had before please do not worry. We are happy for children to reread a previously sent book to see if they can read if fluently.