1. Reading at Water Leys- The environment
Print enriched classrooms
Each classroom has a lot of print on display within the environment. We use different font styles as it is part of our curriculum, but where possible we immerse the children in precursive text as this is the text style we teach the children to write in
Books in the environment
Each classroom has a reading area full of fiction and non-fiction books for the children to look at
Both classrooms have books available in each area of learning linked to the subject and our topics where possible
Reading 4 times a week
We recommend that your child reads 4 times a week which includes your child reading to you and you reading to your child. We also encourage the children to practise reading their key words at home. As the children learn their key words, they will take the next set home. There are a total of 6 sets of Foundation Stage key words. It is important that as well as learning to read the key words, your child should also learn to write them. Each child who reads 4 times or more at home each week will receive a reading certificate. They will then be put into a half termly draw to win a book. Please ensure that you record what your child reads at home and how they get on to enable them to receive their certificate and help us with our assessments and support for your child. Your child needs their diary and reading books in their book bag every day and their library book must be brought back into school on a Friday or they will not be able to take another book out.

2. Reading at Water Leys-School reading
Reading books
Your child is currently taking home 1 silver and 1 black book from our school reading scheme. As the children move up the levels they will take home different coloured books
Library book
We will begin visiting the school library this Friday to give the children the opportunity to take a library book out. These will be changed once a week every Friday. The school library is open to parents on Tuesday and Thursdays after school from pm for you to take another book out for your child
Wigston Library trip
We are planning a visit to the local library for the children to have a look round and have a story read to them. We will pick up forms for all of the children for them to join the library if they are not already members

3. Reading at Water Leys-School reading continued
Weekly individual read
Each child will read individually to a member of staff once a week. They will also look at their key words during this time.
Guided reading
There will be 1 guided reading session each week where the children will take part in reading activities and will look at books that cover the sounds they learn in phonics
Daily phonics sessions
We teach phonics every day to the whole class. The children then branch off later in the day to either repeat the phonics lesson taught earlier if they find the sound of the day tricky or they will have extended teaching to take their learning on further

4. Synthetic Phonics
‘Synthetic’ phonics refers to the fact that children are taught to ‘synthesise’ (i.e. put together or build up) pronunciations for unfamiliar written words by translating letters into sounds and blending the sounds together. i.e. cat becomes c-a-t cat
Phonic Terms (Please see the handout in the Literacy pack)
Segmenting- This is splitting up words into the different sound
Robot arms- Help us to segment!
Blending- Saying the whole word together after segmenting it
Phoneme- The sounds
Digraph- 2 letters that make the same sound together i.e. ee
Trigraph- 3 letters that make the same sound together i.e. igh
Grapheme- The sounds in written form
Sound buttons- ‘Dots’ drawn under each individual sound
Sound bars- ‘Lines’ drawn under each diraph and trigraph

5. 5 Elements of a synthetic phonics programme
Learning the phonemes (sounds)
Learning the graphemes which represent the phonemes (writing the sounds)
Blending sounds for reading (saying the whole word together)
Segmenting words for writing (splitting up the words by their sounds)
Reading and spelling high frequency(words which occur most frequently in written material)/tricky words (words that cannot be segmented)

6. Letters and Sounds
We use a phonic scheme/programme called Letters and sounds
6 phases: Phase 1-Phase 6
Tricky words- These are words that cannot be segmented they just have to be learnt
We use RML sound cards and rhymes to help children to learn the sounds and to write them

7. Phase 1 Listening to sounds (environmental sounds-sound walks)
Instrumental sounds
Action songs
Rhythm and rhyme
Alliteration
Listening to stories

8. Phase 2 Recognising sounds
The phase 2 sound are taught in the following order:
Set 1- s, a, t, p
Set 2- i, n, m, d
Set 3- g, o, c, k
Set 4- ck, e u, r
Set 5- h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss
Mainly phonemes apart from the digraphs; ck/ff/ll/ss
Tricky words- I, the, no, go, to, into
Segmenting and blending
Using phonic knowledge in writing

9. Phase 3 Further sounds to recognise
The Phase 3 sounds are taught in the following order:
Set 6- j, v, w, x
Set 7- y, z, zz, qu
Constonant digraphs- ch, sh, th, ng
Vowel digraphs- ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er
New tricky words- he/she/we/me/be/you/all/are/her/they/my/was
Segmenting and blending
Using phonic knowledge in writing

10. Real and nonsense words
At the end of Year 1, children have a Phonics Screening Test which is a set of 40 words, some real and some nonsense, which they must try and read as many as they can
Nonsense words are included because as long as children can recognise sounds they can read them in any word, whether they are real or not i.e. if the children can read l-e-ss (less) then they an read p-e-ss (pess)
We will include real and nonsense words in our learning later on in the school year once the children have grasped Phase 2 sounds
Phonics Play- Obb and Bob game

11. How to support your child’s reading development at home
Talk about print in your surroundings/Read signs when you’re out and about
Read 4 times a week
Discuss the pictures in books
Regularly go through the key words
Go through flashcards of sounds and tricky words
Play snap with sound and words
Share books together
Model following the text with your finger when you read and encourage your child to do this too
Be ‘sound detectives’
Model segmenting and blended
Use robot arms
Ask comprehension questions about the text

12. Writing at Water Leys Primary School
Writing is modelled at every opportunity
Scribing for children
Mark making opportunities- writing sounds in shaving foam/porridge oats
Tracing opportunities
Copying letters
Name writing/tracing on all work
Morning writing task
Weekly adult led writing activity
Weekly independent writing challenge which is differentiated that all children must complete
Writing in phonics lessons
Writing area in each classroom with specific differentiated activities in continuous provision linked to the topic
Writing in each area where possible
Class bear diary writing

13. How to support your child’s writing development at home
Encourage your child to use the correct pencil grip (tri-pod grip)
Regular name writing practise with correct upper and lowercase letters
Practise writing key words
Encourage mark making and question your child about what they have written
Encourage using phonic knowledge when writing (segmenting)
Talk to your child about the letters that represent the sounds they write (letter names)
Weekend news writing/days out recount writing
Writing cards
Writing shopping list
Model writing and saying the RML rhymes yourself as much as you possibly can
Encourage your child to say the RML rhymes when they are writing