Reading and Phonics
Reading and Phonics at Malden Manor
Reading happens all the time in the classroom and around school. Learning how to read and to understand what we have read is one of the most important skills we can give our children. It is not just about reading books though, or learnt in Literacy lessons. Children practise using their reading skills constantly: they read in maths lessons and topic lessons; they read non-fiction books, posters, instructions and leaflets; they read displays and charts and games; they read on the laptop and ipad and of course on the interactive whiteboard.
Our aim is to encourage the children to love reading so that they become lifelong readers.
Phonics at Malden Manor
At Malden Manor we teach phonics using the systematic synthetic phonics Read Write Inc programme. Learning begins in Nursery and carries on into Key Stage 2. Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 learn phonics daily.
Phonics is based on learning the smallest sounds that make up a word: ch – i – p
Children begin with the idea that sounds match to letters. They learn to blend letters together to make words. They also learn to read on sight some of the more common words (sometimes called Red Words or High Frequency Words) that cannot be sounded out using their phonic skills.
They also learn to say a word and segment it into its separate sounds so that they can then spell it correctly. There are some common words that cannot be spelt in this way and these must just be learnt.
Reading at Home
Once the children begin in Reception they will start to bring home a reading book. They might initially be books with no words. These help a child to re-tell a story in their own words and to discuss what is happening without worrying about words on the page.
Once they have learnt their first sounds your child will begin to bring home books which contain simple sentences. They will be able to use their phonics knowledge to sound out some of these words. They will also begin to recognise some of the Red Words. However, reading to your child is still very important at this stage.
When the children move in to Year 1 they will start to bring home books from our colour coded system which is matched to their ability to decode the words as well as to understand what they have read. It is important to continue to talk about the books with your child.
Children are expected to read at home every evening.
