Changes to the Teaching of Phonics and Reading

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are very excited to share with you a new reading venture that we are embarking on as a school. After many years of using the Jolly Phonics Programme we have decided to, after consultation with staff and children invest in a brand-new scheme for teaching early reading in our school.

This will impact the way that both phonics and reading are taught, particularly in Reception and Year 1. Children in year 2, will also be following this new scheme to ensure all gaps in early reading are closed. Phonics will continue to be taught daily to all children but will be taught following a scheme called ‘Little Wandle-Letters and Sounds revised’. This is a very thorough and very rigorous programme which teaches the children the skills they need to read. Across Reception and KS1 alongside our daily phonics lessons, each child will take part in three reading practice sessions a week. We have been lucky enough to buy sets of 120 new early reading books which are fully decodable for the children and entirely matched to the phonics scheme. Children will be reading in small groups and will 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
• Prosidy- reading with rhythm, stress and intonation
• Comprehension

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. Over the next few weeks we will begin sending these books home both in the form of a book or eBook (there will be more details to follow).

Children will also bring home a book to share. Your child will not necessarily be able to read this on their own, particularly children from Reception to Year 2. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together. In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. The sharing book is a book they have chosen from either their class or school library for you to enjoy together. Please remember that you shouldn’t expect your child to read this 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 nonfiction book.

Our new reading scheme will be replacing all other reading books used in Reception and Year1. Details of how to access your child’s allocated eBooks, for those children following the Little Wandle scheme, will follow shortly as will details of further phonics workshops should you wish to attend them to find out more about how you can support your child at home.

We hope you are as excited as we are to embark on this new journey into Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. Our new resources have arrived and we started using them last week!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to talk to one of us!

Kind Regards

Mr Kimberley

EYFS Strategic Lead & Reading Lead