Supporting your child with reading and phonics.
On this page you will find:
- Details of the different books children bring home.
- Information on the benefits of bedtime stories and a guide to reading stories.
- Details of online support from our English lead teacher
- An overview of what phonics is
- A jargon buster, explaining some of the words that your child will be using in phonics and English lessons.
- Videos on how to help at home, including how to make the sound correctly.
During their time in school, our children have access to different types of books. Click on the titles below to find out more about these:
e-books (These are matched exactly to the phonics that your child has learned over the previous week. They will already have accessed the books 3 times with their teacher and should be able to confidently read it to you at home).
Sharing books (When we changed to Little Wandle Phonics, we still had thousands of high quality books left. We didn't want these to go to waste so these are now known as Sharing books and are organised into sets to enable some progression. The children won't be able to decode every word in the book so these are for you to read together. They can read the words they do know, and you can read the rest).
Take home books (These books are for you to read to your child. They consist of picture books, non-fiction books, poems and later on, chapter books. They are ideal for bedtime stories).
Year 2 bridging books (These are for Year 2 children who have moved on from phonically decodable books. They are organised by colour to allow some progression and the focus will be developing higher level comprehension skills).
The benefits of bedtime stories.
Check out the ideas below or watch the following video from Mrs Ruddick: 5 benefits to bedtime stories-YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGz1GfdjqbaW-8NAhuMzjmVe90qx7Mdg_ Always supervise children when they access the internet.
A guide for parents on being a good story teller:
Practising at home.
Children need to recognise letters automatically. A great way to do this is with flashcards. The children are sent home with their new letters in Reception. The more they look at them and say them the more automatic these letters will become. (It's suggested that children need to read something around 100 times before it becomes 'known'). Stick a new sound on the fridge, the bathroom wall etc and say it as often as possible. Think of words beginning with this sound. Look around when you're out and about at shop signs etc for examples of that letter. Practise writing the letter and saying the sound at the same time.
We don't teach the letters in the order of the alphabet. This is so the children can start to read and make whole words very quickly. For example, we teach the following letters first: s, a, t, p, i, n because with these 6 letters you can make lots of little words e.g. sat, pin, pat, pit, tin, sit, it, sip etc.
What do children learn in phonics?
See the overview below for exactly what the children learn in phonics throughout Reception and Year 1.
Phonics
We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised to teach phonics and early reading. Please see the Parents page for more information, including how you can support your child at home, the different books we send home and the benefits of bedtime stories.
Videos about how to support your child at home.
Follow the link to the Little Wandle website for helpful videos about how to help you child, how to make the sounds correctly and letter formation
https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/