Essential Letters and Sounds
From October 2021 our school started to embed and use a new phonics scheme, Essential Letters and Sounds.
Below we have collated as much information as possible to ensure that parents are able to continue to support their children with learning, outside of school. Of course if you would like any more information or to discuss other ways in which you can help your child learn to read then our door is always open.
Harder to Read and Spell Words
HRS words, are words that children should know even though they have not yet been taught the relevant GPCs (Grapheme Phoneme Correspondences) within these words. HRS words are common in the English language, and it is important that children can read and spell them. When teaching a new HRS, we always identify the graphemes (letters which represent the sound) within the word that make it tricky e.g they (ey is tricky). Please see the Reception and Year 1 documents which outline the order and term in which these words will be taught at Crawley Ridge Infant School.
Press the links below:
Reception Harder to Read and Spell Words
Year 1 Harder to Read and Spell Words
Reading with your child
Reading books are changed once per week. This allows your child to re-read each text several times, building their confidence and fluency. This is especially important as they begin to learn that the sounds within our language can be spelt in different ways.
For children, re-reading words and sentences that they can decode (sound out) until they are fluent (read with ease and precision) is a key part of learning to read. By reading texts several times, children have the greatest opportunity to achieve this fluency.
The texts sent home are carefully matched to the teaching taking place in school. Your child will be practising what they have been taught in school with you at home. We will only ask children to read books independently when they can decode these by themselves.
How to pronounce sounds
Reception – Phase 2
During the Autumn term, our Reception children learn phase 2 sounds. They focus on oral blending as well as sounding out and blending the 23 new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They will also learn 12 new harder to read and spell words (HRS). Please see the HRS section for a list of words the children will learn and when.
These Phase 2 sounds will continue to be used throughout the children’s time at Crawley Ridge Infant School. We ensure that we model pure sounds so that the children are able to blend successfully. Please see the video below so you can hear how to pronounce the “pure sounds”. Parent feedback has requested further support with sound articulation so we have included these links on our website for you. A consistent approach optimises success for the children so please let us know if you require further support with how to help your child with their phonics.
Phase 2 video:
Reception – Phase 3
During the second half of the Autumn term and throughout the Spring Term, Reception children learn phase 3 sounds. They continue to focus on oral blending as well as sounding out and blending the 29 new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They will also learn 32 new harder to read and spell words (HRS). Please see the HRS section for a list of words the children will learn and when.
These Phase 3 sounds will continue to be used throughout the children’s time at Crawley Ridge Infant School. We ensure that we model pure sounds so that the children are able to blend successfully. Please see the video below so you can hear how to pronounce the “pure sounds”. Parent feedback has requested further support with sound articulation so we have included these links on our website for you. A consistent approach optimises success for the children so please let us know if you require further support with how to help your child with their phonics.
Phase 3 video:
Phase 5 video:
