Essential Letters and Sounds

'Getting all children to read well, quickly'

Following an update from the DfE around phonics teaching, we have moved to Essential Letters and Sounds, this is a phonics programme based on Letters and Sounds (2007). This new phonics programme will support your children in making quick progress to become fluent and confident readers.

Essential Letters and Sounds is a systematic, synthetic phonics programme that is rigorous and engaging. It is based on the notion that our children 'keep up rather than catch up' and ensures that all children, regardless of their background or starting point make good progress and become fluent readers by using a consistent and repetitive approach. The programme provides engaging interactive whiteboard resources, mnemonics and rhymes to aid the children as well as supporting worksheets which allow the children to practice what they have just learnt in the oral lesson. 

Our Oxford colour banded reading scheme books match closely to the precise sounds your child will be learning and are sent home based on both their reading ability and phonics learning within the classroom. 

To best support us in teaching your child how to read, we ask that you read with your child 4 times across the week. Spending 10 minutes a day reading with your child will hugely support them in their journey to becoming an independent reader.

It is a key part of learning to read that children re-read words and sentences that they can decode (sound out) until they are fluent (read with ease and precision). 

Please find below additional information on how ELS is delivered within our school and videos to help with pronunciation of sounds.