Literacy Literacy is the ability to read and write. It is important to get a good start in literacy as you need to be literate to access most of the curriculum in your school life. This is done by building pathways in the brain – in other words, practicing lots!

Children get the best start in literacy when they: At school: Have daily phonics sessions Have handwriting sessions Have small group writing sessions Have 1:1 and guided reading sessions Read a range of fiction and non-fiction books Discuss about what has happened in a book Write fiction and non-fiction texts At home: Read at home daily Have books read to them Notice words and letters around the environment Practise writing and good letter formation through pictures and creative activities.

Phonics Phonics means the using the sounds that letters make to read and spell words. Here are the 44 phonemes in the English language: -1s Show letters and sounds sheet

Magnetic boards Say the word, then break it up into sounds. This is called segmenting. Segmenting helps children to spell words. Say each sound in the word and put the letters together to make the word.

Magnetic board Now we are going to make a digraph. This is 1 sound with 2 letters. The digraph at the start of this word is a consonant digraph – it makes a consonant sound.

Magnetic board Now we are going to make a new digraph. This digraph is a vowel digraph – it makes a vowel sound. The vowel sounds are a e i o u ai ee igh oa oo

Magnetic board Now we are going to do some blending. Blending helps children to read. Make the word cat on your board. Touch each letter in order as you say the sound and blend the sounds together. Children can read many words using this technique- usually in print.

High frequency words Not all words in the English language can be read or spelled using phonics. Children also need to learn tricky words and spelling patterns. In reception, children will learn lots of simple tricky words such as I, the, go, you. It is good to practice them a bit at home too.

Phase 1- September Singing Noticing initial sounds Rhyming Alliteration Listening skills

Phase 2 October - January Most single letter sounds Matching sounds to letters Blending sounds to make a word Sounding out and blending cvc words (c-a-t d-o-g) Reading words I, the, no, go, to Practicing good letter formation

Phase 3 January - July Learn the rest of the single letters j,v,w,x,y,z,qu Learn some digraphs and trigraphs like sh, ee, oo. Read short words with digraphs and trigraphs in. Spell short words with digraphs and trigraphs in. Read he, she, we, me, was, my, you, her, they,all are. Spell words the, to, I, no, go. Practice good letter formation. Write a sentence with some punctuation.

Children in reception are given lots of opportunities to put their phonics into practice. This is through guided writing sessions in small groups and lots of writing resources in play – for example taking an order in the café, making a book about animals, or recording the scores of a game. The following 2 slides are of 2 children at a good level of writing at the end of reception. Writing

Reading

Every Child a Reader St. Barnabas is a Every Child a Reader ECaR lead school. We have won many awards over the years and have supported the majority of the local schools in setting up the Every Child a Reader programme. Our end of year (SATS) results in reading are above the national average year on year.

Creating a love of reading in children is potentially one of the most powerful ways of improving academic standards in school.

Reading Books All books across the school from Foundation Stage to Year 6 are Reading Recovery Levelled and Book Banded, this includes all of our guided reading books. Each class has a set of appropriately levelled books to ensure all children experience success and progress from one level to the next We also have a central area of levelled books so that teachers can exchange books

Level 1

Level 16

Level 22

How to help when the child finds it hard to read a word Ask the child to point to the words on the page, check that they know the difference between a word and a letter Ask the child to ‘get their mouth ready’ and sound out the word and blend the sounds together Ask him/her to read on past the word to see if he/she can get the meaning of the sentence and work out the word Ask the child to re-read the sentence putting in the first sound of the unknown word and then read on to the end of the sentence Always ask the child to have a go. If he/she has a go but really can’t read it then show him/her how to use one of the above points to work it out Make sure that what the child says makes sense, if it doesn’t ask them to re read checking for meaning Give the child lots of praise, even if he/she couldn’t read many of the words, we all like to feel like we are trying our best Be patient – children can often find reading difficult and will needs lots of practise and praise

Reading for pleasure and purpose

Our School Library £15,000 to refurbish and re-stock our library Good range of high quality texts that reflect the children’s interests and our curriculum = motivation to read and deep engagement Children visit the library every week and bring books home.

Supporting reading at home Be a great role model: Make the experience pleasurable, quiet time, no distractions, TV off! Provide a wide range of reading material at home Become a member of your local library

We let our light shine by developing the skills needed to promote a life long love of reading.

Have a great summer! We’ll see you for your home visit – your date for that and your start date are in your goody bag. Enjoy the goody bags with your child – things to do over the holidays sheet.