Dear Parents and Carers,

Learning to read is the most important thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends on it, so we put as much energy as we possibly can into making sure that every single child learns to read as quickly as possible.

We want your child to love reading – and to want to read for themselves. This is why we put our efforts into making sure they develop a love of books as well as simply learning to read. We start by teaching phonics to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. This is essential for reading, but it also helps children learn to spell well. We teach the children simple ways of remembering these sounds and letters. Ask them to show you what these are.

The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘once,’ ‘have,’ ‘said’ and ‘where’. The children practise their reading with books that match the phonics and the ‘tricky words’ they know. They start thinking that they can read and this does wonders for their confidence. The teachers read to the children, too, so the children get to know all sorts of stories, poetry and information books. They learn many more words this way and it also helps their writing.

We use various ways to find out how the children are getting on in reading. We use the information to decide what reading group they should be in. Your child will work with children who are at the same reading level as him or her. Children will move to a different group if they are making faster progress than the others. Your child will have one-to-one support if we think he or she needs some extra help to keep up.

We also use a reading test so that we can make sure that all our children are at the level that they should be for their age compared to all the children across the country. In the summer term, the government asks us to do a phonics check of all the Year 1 children. That gives us extra information about their progress. We will talk to you about how well your child has done, and especially if we have any worries at all. Due to Lockdown, the government have asked all our current Year 2 children to do their phonics check in November.

By the end of Year 2, your child should be able to read aloud books that are at the right level for his or her age. In Year 3 we concentrate more on helping children to understand what they are reading, although this work begins very early on. This happens when the teacher reads to the children and also when the children read their own story book.

You are being invited to a zoom meeting so that we can explain how we teach reading. Please come and support your child. We would very much like you to know how to help.
Your child will bring different sorts of books home from school. It helps if you know whether this is a book that your child can read on their own or whether this is a book that you should read to them. The teacher will have explained which is which. Please trust your child’s teacher to choose the book(s) that will help your child the most.
Help your child to sound out the letters in words and then to ‘push’ the sounds together to make a whole word. Try not to refer to the letters by their names. Help your child to focus on the sounds.

Sometimes your child might bring home a picture book that they know well. Please don’t say, ‘This is too easy.’ Instead, encourage your child to tell you the story out loud; ask them questions about things that happen or what they think about some of the characters in the story.

We know parents and carers are very busy people. But if you can find time to read to your child as much as possible, it helps him or her to learn about books and stories. They also learn new words and what they mean. Show that you are interested in reading yourself and talk about reading as a family.

To help promote the learning and understanding of Phonics, I will be holding a number of Zoom Meetings on the dates below for parents and carers. These meetings will provide you with the opportunity to see what phonics is, how we teach phonics at Holy Trinity, and how you can support your child at home, particularly in preparation for the phonics screening check. The dates and times are as follows:
Year 2 parents and carers: Monday, 12th October 2.00pm or 5.00pm
Year 1 parents and carers: Monday, 19th October 2.00pm or 5.00pm
Reception parents and carers: Monday, 9th November 2.00pm or 5.00pm

Please indicate which session you would like to join either by replying to your letter sent home today or by emailing Lawley@holytrinitycepa.co.uk

Zoom meeting codes for the Year 2 sessions on Monday, 12th October are below.  The remaining session codes will be uploaded closer to the time.

In the meantime, if you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards,

Mrs Thompstone

Topic: Mrs Thompstone’s Zoom Meeting
Time: Oct 12, 2020 02:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/93916060390?pwd=MG42SHlCV3pTTDRacVUwaDFxM21IQT09

Meeting ID: 939 1606 0390
Passcode: UaKj4v

Topic: Mrs Thompstone’s Zoom Meeting
Time: Oct 12, 2020 05:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/98160411504?pwd=dWtLVVloV2VaRENKS3NvbUZKc0tYQT09

Meeting ID: 981 6041 1504
Passcode: qujgy4