Phonics: Nursery children will practice their rhyming skills develop an awareness of rhyming pairs. They will play lots of listening games, identifying sounds in the environment and trying to hear the initial sounds in words and matching them to objects. To tune in their listening skills, they will go on sound walks, listening to the quietest of sounds such as branches in the breeze. 

Reception children will be taught the phase 2 phonemes and will learn to blend them to read simple words, phrases and short sentences. The phase 2 tricky words will be introduced and children will practise reading short sentences which include these. 

Reading: The reception children will begin taking home  reading books each week. Some first books may be without words to encourage story telling and development of vocabulary from the pictures. Some books will practise matching initial sounds to objects and others will to practise blending the sounds recently introduced in phonics along with those they are revisiting. The children practise blending to read read in daily phonics sessions and will begin to read in small adult led group guided reading sessions.  A range of Autumn themed information books and story books are available along with stories from the author Julia Donaldson.   

Library books will be chosen and swapped each week with a discussion focus each week, beginning with who the main character is in their book. 

Writing: Reception children are practising the correct formation of letters during daily phonics sessions and the formation of letters in their names using the Red Rose phonics phrases. Oral segmenting of sounds to spell simple words is practised in our daily phonics sessions.                Nursery children are practising mark making using a variety of tools. 

All children will be encouraged to write at every opportunity and those who are confident at recognising and hearing sounds in words will be supported in their attempts to include these sounds in their writing.

New and relevant vocabulary will be taught and used throughout the day, with focussed vocabulary in each subject being introduced.