Learning to read and write at Echelford in Reception and Year 1

In the first instance, we teach your child how to read and write using phonics.  Phonics is a method of teaching children to read by linking sounds (phonemes) and the symbols that represent them (graphemes, or letter groups). 

At Echelford, we use the phonics resource ‘Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds’ to help your child learn. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming confident readers on age appropriate books by the end of Year 1. Whilst phonics plays an important part in our Reception and Year 1 classrooms, it continues to be applied in Year 2 and throughout their journey at Echelford.

What does phonics look like in Reception and Year 1?

• Daily phonics sessions
• Guided reading groups three times a week
• Books brought home every week which are matched to the child’s phonics stage and that they can read independently.
• To ensure reading is an enjoyable experience, books will be sent home in which the child can read 95% of the words.
• As part of their weekly homework an e-book will be sent home on Collins Connect which will match the book they have been learning during the week in school.
• 1:1 reading once a week with either a TA / class teacher.

In this section of the website, you will find the following documents, which will enable you to support your child further in their phonics journey:

• Definitions of the terminology we use with the children in school
• Pronunciation guides for each sound
• Progression grids to show what the children are learning in each term in Reception and Year 1

How to pronounce the phonics sounds

This link https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ shows how to pronounce each phonic sound in Phase 2 and Phase 3.

When your child moves onto Phase 5 in Year 1, the sounds are pronounced in the same way as these ones but they are alternative spellings e.g. /aw/ and /au/ in Phase 5 would sound the same as /or/ in this video.