Supporting your child in Class 1

This page is for links that will help you support your child with their learning and development.

Further links will be added so keep checking!

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes are important for young children because they help develop an ear for our language. Both rhyme and rhythm help kids hear the sounds and syllables in words, which helps kids learn to read! 

Reading
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 teach reading in a variety of ways in class 1. Here is a brief outline...

1. Daily phonics/Read, write, inc sessions.

2. Books and stories linked to challenges and areas of learning.

3. Regular reading at home with a reading level matched book chosen by the child.

4. Weekly reading sessions using texts closely linked to the pupils phonics skills.

5. Daily whole class/small group story time with a focus on enjoyment of stories and comprehension.

6. The use of Alphablocks to support blending of newly acquired phonic knowledge

How will my child be taught to read?
We start by teaching phonics using the Read/Write Inc program to the children in the Reception class. This means that they learn how to ‘read’ the speed sounds, blend and segment the sounds in words, and how those sounds can be written down.
The children also practise reading (and spelling) what we call ‘tricky words’, such as ‘the,’ ‘my,’ ‘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.