Parents Phonics and Reading Workshop

4th October 2023 

Thank you to all the parents that attended our phonics and reading workshop.  All the information discussed this evening about our new phonics programme is included below.  Essential Letters and Sounds is a Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programme, validated by the Department for Education.

This is a new whole school approach to phonics teaching.

The links below will show you how we will be pronouncing the pure sound with the children. We will start with Phase 2 and move onto phase 3 in reception.

On each half termly newsletter, we will inform you which phonemes and harder to read and spell words we will be learning each week so that you can support at home.

We will change your child's decodable book on Friday and they will keep this for the week. This allows your child to develop fluency and comprehension with this text. The children will have a range of genres they will be exposed to. 

On Monday we will change your child's share a story book with them.

This will all start after October half term.

If you have any questions about phonics or reading please ask your child's class teacher. 

Thank you to those that attended the parents meeting this week. It was great to see you all.

The PowerPoint presentation is below for your information but if you have any questions please come and speak to me. 

The Princess of Wales recently launched "Shaping us" this is their new campaign that highlights the importance of early education.  The first five years of a child's life shapes their future as an adult. 

The video below called 'Layla's story' was part of this launch.

At St John's each year group has a set of story books that are read frequently to the children. The stories then become well known to them and they take part in reading them to the class or joining in with their favourite parts. 

Below  you to see what the reception spine books are.

Why has oral health been included in the new Statutory Framework?

Good health habits need to be formed from an early age. Tooth decay is largely preventable, but it is still a large problem among young children.

We provide opportunities for the children to practise using a tooth brush and talking about why keeping out teeth clean and brushing twice a day is important.

Below is a useful Power Point to give you as parents valuable information.