Homework is sent out weekly on a Friday and returned on the following Thursday.

The children's homework will include:

Spellings (Children have a spelling test every Friday),

Maths activity (this could be a worksheet or a task),

Reading

The children will have two reading books sent home from school. One from our school library, which is a book of choice, and another is a book selected for your child to read based on their reading level. It is important that you read with your child at home as it helps build confidence in reading. Please record when you read with them in their reading diary.  

Library books will be changed on a two-week cycle on Fridays.

Books based on your child's reading level will be changed every Friday, so please make sure they are returned to school on Thursday or Friday to ensure they are changed. Books that are not returned on a Friday will not be changed until the following Friday.

We have PE on Mondays and Thursdays.

Please send your child in wearing appropriate PE kit on these days.

At Thorpe Lea Primary School, children start to learn to read and write using Read Write Inc. phonics, a systematic synthetic phonics scheme. They begin the scheme as soon as they join us in Reception and carry on until they have moved through the entire programme through til Year 2. The programme helps to build your child's confidence and fluency when reading and writing. 

Below is a quick guide for parents/carers  with some tips and ideas to help you support your child with their phonics. You can also find more information at :

https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/read-write-inc-phonics-guide/ 

 

Set 1 Sounds

All children start phonics by being taught these sounds in this order when in Reception. Each day, the sounds are revisited and reviewed to check for accuracy. 

To help with pronunciation, here is a video to help you. Please click here. 

Set 2 Sounds

Once children are confident with all Set 1 sounds, they will progress on to Set 2 sounds. 

Throughout Year 1, your child will also be learning some Set 3 sounds, these are below as follows:

 

Tips to help your child with reading:

1. Choose a quiet time – set time aside with no distractions for 10-15 minutes each day.
   Be positive – boost your child’s achievement and give praise. Using books that may seem easy builds confidence rather than a book which has too many unknown words; building self-esteem is important when creating fluent and confident readers.
2. Read for variety – children need to experience putting their skills into practice, so let them read the weekly shopping list, ingredients for a recipe, the football scores or comics. If it has words, your child can practice reading them!
3. Use the Parent guide to Read Write Inc. Phonics | Oxford Owl, where you will discover more top tips to support your child at home, including parent tutorial videos, the ‘Sound Pronunciation Guide’ and more ideas and resources to support your child.
4. Remember to be a good role model by demonstrating your reading for pleasure.
5. Visit your local library to borrow exciting new books, comics and other reading materials.

• The Phonics Screening Check is a Government statutory test for Year 1 pupils in England, given in June.

 

• It assesses their ability to read words by sounding them out. 

 

• It consists of 40 words, a mix of real and nonsense words.

 

  

 

• It is administered one-on-one by a teacher.

 

• The results show whether a child has a strong understanding of phonics and helps identify those who need extra help with reading.

 

• This will commence Monday 8th June 2026.

 

Below are some practise papers for the Phonics Screening Check.