EYFS Phonics
We follow the Little Wandle Phonics Foundations programme. There are three parts to Foundations: Foundations for Phonics, Foundations for a Love of Reading and Foundations for Language.
Foundations for Phonics provides our children with access to a range of phonological and phonemic awareness games. These help tune them into sounds, ready for phonics in Reception.
Foundations for a Love of Reading offers children opportunities to engage with a rage of high quality picture books. Parents are encouraged to share books and stories at home as research shows that children who regularly engage with and listen to stories go on to become better readers than those who don’t have early book and reading experiences.
Back-and-forth interactions have been shown to be one of the best ways to develop children’s language. We use Foundations for Language in conjunction with our ECAT programme to focus on our communication and interactions with children.
Phonics in Reception
Welcome to the beginning of the most wonderful journey in which your child, whatever their starting point, will become a fluent, confident reader who loves books! For many children at the start of Reception, letters look like squiggles on the page and have no connection to sounds. Learning that letters and sounds are linked – phonics – is the key to reading.
All for the love of reading Reading enables children to function successfully in our increasingly text-filled world. Reading develops children’s vocabulary, understanding of the world and empathy. Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised teaches children to read and to love reading.
In Reception, we will teach children the sounds of the letters so they can begin to use phonics to read.
What will my child be taught in school?
Your child will be taught phonics every day. They will learn to say and read all the single letter sounds (for example, s and m) and some consonant digraphs. A digraph is where two letters make one sound (for example qu and sh). We will work really hard to teach your child to blend sounds together to read words. They will start reading wordless books and, when they can blend sounds into words, will read Phase 2 books. We will provide your child with daily additional practice if they need it.
How can I read a wordless book?
Wordless books are invaluable as they teach reading behaviours and early reading skills to children who are not yet blending. Talk to your child about what they can see in the pictures. Point to the images in the circles and find them on the page. Encourage your child to make links from the book to their own experiences.
What about words that can’t be read easily with phonics?
Some common words are unusual and do not make sense with phonics until much later in your child’s reading journey, for example, ‘was’ and ‘the’. We call these words ‘tricky words’ and we teach these words differently. We help children to identify the bit that does make sense and the part that is tricky.
What can I do to support my child at home?
Ask them what sounds they have learned each day and point out objects in the environment or in books that start with that sound. Read to your child daily – choose books that you can enjoy together. Listen to them practise reading their phonics book to develop their fluency.
Further Information