Phonics and Early Reading at Hayfield Cross
At Hayfield Cross the children in Reception and Key Stage 1 undertake daily phonics teaching to support their reading and spelling development. We assess your child every six weeks to check progress. Any child who needs extra support has daily keep-up sessions planned for them.
Our school has chosen Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised as our systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP) programme to teach early reading and spelling. In Year 1, children complete the national phonics screening test to assess their decoding skills. The link below will take you to the Little Wandle resources to help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also some useful videos so you can see how they are taught at school and feel confident about supporting their reading at home.
Please also see our Intent-Implementation-Impact statement for Phonics and all subjects which can be found under the Curriculum tab in 'Curriculum Statements'.
If you click on the button below, you'll visit a page that includes resources to help you support your child with saying their sounds and writing their letters. There are also some useful videos so you can see how they are taught at school.
What is phonics?
Phonics is a method of teaching children how to read and write by helping them to understand the connections between the sounds of our spoken words and the letters that are used to write them down. Children learn individual sounds, or phonemes, and how to blend these sounds together to read words. Children also learn how to break words down into their individual sounds to help with spelling.
Phonics supports children in developing their reading skills by helping them to decode unfamiliar words and become more confident and independent readers.
How do we teach reading in books in school?
Children in EYFS and Year 1 read the same book three times in a week. The first time we work on decoding (sounding out) the words, the second time we work on prosody which is reading with expression – making the book sound more interesting with our story-teller voice or our David Attenborough voice – and the third time we look at comprehension. We read the books three times at school because we want to develop the fluency. The more they see words the more they begin to read them automatically without having to sound them out.
Reading a book at the right level means your child should:
Know all the sounds and tricky words in their phonics book well.
Read many of the words by silent blending (in their head) – their reading will be automatic.
- Only need to stop and sound out about 5% of the words by the time they bring the book home – but they should be able to do this on their own.
Supporting your child with reading at home
Although your child will be taught to read at school, you can have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice at home.
There are two types of reading book that your child will bring home:
A reading practice book. This will be at the correct phonic stage for your child. They should be able to read this fluently and independently.
A sharing book. Your child will not be able to read this on their own. This book is for you both to read and enjoy together.
Reading Parctice Book
This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current reading level. If your child is reading it with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading.
Listen to them read the book. Remember to give them lots of praise – celebrate their success! If they can’t read a word, read it to them. After they have finished, talk about the book together.
Sharing Book
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 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 non-fiction book. The main thing is that you have fun!
Resources to help your child at home
Below you'll find some resources that will help your child learn and practice their phonics at home: