A big thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us on Monday for our Phonics Phase 2 Stay and Learn session. We hope you enjoyed seeing a lesson in action, taking part in activities with your child and found the teacher presentation helpful.
Click here to view the presentation slides.
You might also find the Little Wandle website useful to learn more about how we teach phonics in school. You’ll find useful videos showing how to pronounce phonemes using pure sounds and tips for supporting your child with wordless books.
We also have lots of information about phonics in the ‘Learn more – phonics’ section of our school website.
Reading in Reception
Children read in small groups (up to six) with an adult each morning. They work with the same book across the week, reading four times (Mon–Thurs). The week’s eBook is usually shared by Thursday evening.
Days 1–2: Decoding
Children are introduced to new vocabulary and key decodable words – words that can be segmented and blended. We then read through the book together. The aim at this stage is to develop automaticity (recognising words by sight or memory), which helps make reading more fluent and confident.
Day 3: Prosody
Prosody refers to the patterns of stress, intonation and rhythm in speech – in other words, sounding like a storyteller! This is modelled to the children, who are taught to notice clues in the text that influence how we read aloud. For example:
- How is the character feeling?
- Is there an exclamation or question mark?
- Should we pause briefly at a full stop?
Day 4: Comprehension
Children are asked a range of questions to check their understanding of what they have read. You can find some of these questions on the last page of the eBook – they’re great for chatting about the story at home.
Reading Reports & Support
Teachers check reading reports regularly via Collins Hub and will make ‘keeping in touch’ calls if reading hasn’t been recorded, just to see if we can help. If you’re having trouble accessing eBooks, please speak to your class teacher. iPads are available to hire from the school office if needed.
Reading Records
Please send your child’s reading record to school every Friday, with a short comment about how they’ve been getting on. This can include any reading at home – not just eBooks.
We’d Love Your Feedback
Thank you again for joining our Stay and Learn session. We’d love to hear your thoughts! Please scan the QR code to fill out our feedback form.
