Phonics and Reading at Torfield

As part of our work to develop and improve how phonics and early reading are taught we have implemented the Sounds-Write approach to teaching systematic synthetic phonics. After careful consideration, we have chosen Sounds-Write because of how well-suited it is to supporting children with special educational needs. If you would like to find out more about Sounds-Write and how you can use it to support your child at home you may be interested in this free online course:

https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/

To support your child’s reading at home your child will be given two books each to enjoy reading with and to you.

One is a book which we call the ‘I can read book’. These books are closely matched to your child’s phonics lessons and will only include words which they have been taught to read or ‘decode’. This means it is a book which we would like your child to read to you so that they can enjoy applying the knowledge they’ve gained in their phonics lessons.

The second book will either be a ‘We read book’ or a ‘You read book’. This is a book for you to share and enjoy with your child, so please read any or all of this book to them.  They have chosen this book as they are interested in it. As such it may contain new words which they aren’t able to read themselves or words which they will need you to talk to them about or explain the meaning of to them to help develop your child’s vocabulary.

Like you, we want to ensure every child is always able to access an “I can read book”.  This means we must ask you as parents/carers to look after every book which is sent home.  Please return these books to school promptly and in the excellent condition they were sent home to you in.  The money we have invested in these books is for the education of every child at Torfield and should books be repeatedly lost or damaged then we will need payment to buy replacements.
  
Reading with and to your child is an incredibly valuable and enjoyable experience, so please do keep finding the time to do this regularly using both books.  We hope you gain as much from this time as your child will.