Dear Parent

Please find attached the next set of phonics (phase 5a) which we have completed in class.  It would be very beneficial to your child to practise both reading and writing these at home. I have also enclosed the phase 3 sheet and a phonetic sound sheet to help you with pronunciation. 

Most children will still confuse the sounds when writing, ie they may write ‘grone’ instead of ‘groan’ however this is perfectly normal as they are gaining confidence in using their phonetic knowledge.  Indeed, as I am sure you can appreciate (by looking at the table) there are so many ways to pronounce the same sound that it can be somewhat over-whelming and it will only be by learning their specific spellings that the children will begin to identify key words. 

The aim will be for children to identify the sounds within made-up (alien) words and, in doing this, it will make a huge impact in both their reading and writing.  Please do not hesitate to see me to discuss. 

Ideas to help learn:

• Just go through the sheet getting the children to read the sounds.
• Say a sound, (ou).  Can they find any other ways of making this sound? Can they write them? Can they point to them on the sheet?
• Can they write a word which starts with that sound / ends with that sound / or has it in the middle? 
• Write an ‘alien’ word and ask your child to spell it another way, for example plor – plaw, plore, ploar.
• Can they write a word.  Get them to write all the ways they can and see if they can identify the correct spelling.
• You create a list of words and they add the sound buttons and dashes to these.  Eg:

 Shop                     Church                  Light                      Brother

I appreciate that this does seem incredibly confusing for such young children however, it is the Government expectation that all children in year 1 should be able to read and write these sounds by the end of year 1.  The children are working very hard in class and we practise daily, however, it would be hugely beneficial for your child if a few minutes could be spent each evening going through them.  Just reading the sounds on the sheet is a great way to start to improve their phonic recognition

In addition, there are 100 High Frequency Words that all children should be able to read and write by the end of the year and we have been working through these.  I have assessed the children on this (and planned on giving the data at parents evening) however I am unable to post your individual child’s progress so this will be done later.

Many thanks for all your support and good luck and God bless during this difficult time.

Sarah Santry