Phonics & Reading in Nursery

EYFS Parents & Children Reading Together Sessions 2023 - 2024

These take place at 2.30pm in school. Please come to the main school reception and staff will meet you there and bring you through to the classes.

Friday 17th November 2023

Friday 26th January 2024

Friday 15th March 2024

Friday 26th April 2024

Friday 21st June 2024

Phonics in Nursery

At St Anne's we follow the DfE approved scheme for the teaching of Phonics. This scheme suggests 6 clear levels for the teaching of Phonics from Nursery up to Year 2 and beyond.

In Nursery, the children will take part in daily Phonics sessions once settled into Nursery. The will work through Level 1 of the Twinkl Scheme. During the early phase of phonics in Level 1, children will begin to explore sounds around them and learn to listen to and distinguish different environmental sounds and sounds in words. There are 7 key phases and children will learn about:

Environmental sounds
Instrumental sounds
Body percussion (e.g. clapping and stamping)
Rhythm and rhyme
Alliteration
Voice sounds
Oral blending and segmenting (e.g. hearing that d-o-g makes 'dog')

Children are taught key listening skills throughout Nursery. Playing around with and making a variety of sounds for themselves is a key part of the Twinkl Phonics Programme. Only when children have developed these basic skills, will they be able to access Level 2 and beyond. Gaps in Level 1 skills will cause gaps to form further on in their learning development.

Nursery Rhymes

Traditional Nursery Rhymes are very important at this phase of development. By the end of Nursery, children should be able to say some Nursery Rhymes by heart.

Books, Books Books!

Books are also very important at this stage. Listening to and talking about stories should form a part of your daily routine with your child. The more books that your child is exposed to, the more words and language they hear and this will help them foster a love of reading. Children at this stage of development will probably not yet be able to read. However, they may start to identify key words or logos such as their own name mummy, daddy or shop logos. At St Anne's, we offer the children to take a book home everyday with the 1000 Stories Initiative. Please make every effort to share this with your child at a quiet and comfortable time - bedtime is often the best.