Next Wednesday we will be holding a couple of meetings for us to talk through how we teach early reading and phonics. The meetings will be held in the hall and will be led by Mrs McCrory our English lead and will last about half an hour.

There will be two meetings, one at 9.00 and one at 3.00, they will be repeated so there is no need to attend both. The meetings will be most suitable for parents and carers of children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and amongst other things we will be talking about how you can support your child’s reading at home.

Please come along if you can make it.

Below is some general information about early reading and phonics …

Who Is Read Write Inc Phonics for?

Phonics is for children in Reception, Y1 and Y2 who are learning to read.

Phonics is also for children in Y3 and Y4 who haven’t met the KS1 reading expectations. They need to catch up.

Fresh Start is for children in Y5 and Y6 who are still learning to read.

Fresh Start is structured in the same way as the Phonics programme, but uses age-appropriate texts.

Each half-term, we assess and group our children based on their stage of reading not age of reading. This means all children practise reading at the right level.

What happens in school?

In our school, children read each Read Write Inc. Storybook three times in class with their partner.

Re-reading the same book helps children to become confident readers. Each time they re-read, they build their fluency/speed and comprehension.

They love reading and want to read because they can read all of the words in the Storybook.

We set a focus for each re-read in school.

The first read focuses on reading every word accurately.

The second on reading the story more quickly.

The third read on comprehension – understanding what they read.

Which books will we send home?

We use Book Bag Books especially for home reading. They have guidance inside just for you as parents.

They are matched to the books children read in school so provide practice of the same sounds – extra practice at the right level for your child.

They include many of the same reading activities that we use in class.

In your child’s book bag, they will bring home:

• A Book Bag Book. They have guidance inside just for you as parents. They are matched to the books children read in school so provide practice of the same sounds – extra practice at the right level for your child. They include many of the same reading activities that we use in class.
• A picture book to share with you. You can read the story to them  or if they know the story, they can retell the story by looking at the pictures. They are not expected to read the story themselves.