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Your child started their learning journey long ago. By sharing baby books with you, looking at pictures and singing songs. Seeing books and magazines around the home was their introduction to the world of words. You helped to prepare them for their exciting first steps to reading and writing. So what can you do now they are in school?

- Your child's school teaches literacy, and maths from an early stage. Literacy involves reading and writing in accordance to the Government's 'Primary National Strategy'. Within this, for the Reception Class, the focus is on getting children to enjoy and explore letters, words, reading and writing. You can help them to do this by enjoying books with them. Playing games that ivoleve letters and numbers and talking about letters and numbers throughout the day.

-The method of learning used is 'phonics' the widely used system is 'Jolly Phonics' which uses the sound of the letter to build up the word. So we say 'c' 'a' 't' to make up the word cat. There are also actions connected to each sound, which is based on the fact that children remember better when actions are used, as in action rhymes etc.

- The children will bring home reading books to read each day. These will be mainly Oxford Reading Tree Books.(u.k.)

This is a recognised reading system that introduces new words with each book. The high frequency words, that all children should know will also be repeated throughout the books.

The progress of children will be checked in school, however, it vital to your child's progress that they read at home to benefit from these books. As we are reading the words talk about the story, ask questions to see if your child understood the story. Comprehension is vital to reading, as reading individual words with no understanding will not inspire your child to read more

- By reading in their own home they can see the real life benefits and enjoyment of the book, by enjoying and sharing they will want to read more.

If you have Internet access either at home or in the Library you can access Oxford Reading Tree Online, which features learning games that will allow children to learn while playing. http://www.oup.com/oxed/primar y/

How to help your child with their reading.

What to do if they do not know a word. If your child is reading their reading book and they do not know a word there are several ways in which you can help. If it is a word that can be easily broken down into phonics, help them to 'sound out' the word, i.e.: d-o-g to

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