Dear Parents/Carers,
We are excited to tell you about our new phonics and reading scheme for EYFS and KS1.
We are following the DFE recommended Letters and Sounds scheme to teach phonics and have purchased new reading books to go alongside it.
Phonics is a method schools use to teach children to read the sounds in words. It helps children to learn to read quickly and skilfully and is an essential part of early education. Children will be taught to use their phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words.
Our new reading books are fully decodable (use phonic knowledge to read words) and matched to your child’s current phonic phase. They only include letters and words that have been taught and your child is already familiar with. This approach ensures that children are successful when they apply existing phonic knowledge to the text. They do not have to resort to guessing or using other inefficient “clues” such as the picture or the grammatical context. This will increase fluency when reading and with our new books they should be able to read at 95% fluency. Children will need read the book several times, both at home and in school, before moving onto the next book.
In Reception and year 1 (and some year 2), children will bring home two books. A fully decodable book linked to the current phonic phase and a book they have chosen from the library. (The library book will be changed weekly and the class teacher will notify you which day this will happen.) It is really important that the children learn to read and that they develop a love of reading by sharing a book and being read to. It is really important to read with your children for at least 5 minutes every day. Please sign the reading record every time you listen to your child read at home.
When your child can apply all of the phonics skills needed to read fluently and demonstrates good understanding of what they have read, they will move to the school colour band system for reading. This is normally at the end of year 2; brown band books. They will continue to have a colour band reading book and a library book to take home.
Your child’s teacher has been busy assessing your child to make sure that they have a decodable book that they are confident to read. It may appear that your child has been ‘moved down’ a colour band but please don’t worry. As we introduce the new scheme, we need to ensure that your child is completely confident with all of the letters and words in the book, quickly identify any gaps and then they will continue reading books matched to their current phonic phase. The decodable reading books have letters and words to practise inside the front cover and comprehension activities to do at the back. Repetition of these activities helps to build confidence and ultimately a love of reading.
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs Cox and Miss Warburton
Key stage and English Leads
