Communication and Langauge

Every child is on their own pathway to developing their communication and language skills. It is imperative that children become skilled communicators to enable them to access other areas of the curriculum. For more information, see the document 'How we develop communication and language skills'. 

Phonological Awareness

We use the Red Rose Phonics programme that teaches children to listen to sounds, respond to sounds with their voices, look for patterns in sounds and spot sounds in words. As the children progress, they begin to focus on words with the same sounds, rhyming words and then begin to segment and blend ready for reading. All children take part in three planned phonic sessions every week. These are carried out by their Key Person who knows them best. There are opportunities to consolidate the skills taught throughout our continuous provision and teachers incorporate activities into the daily routine. All of our work on phonics is done through rhymes, stories and fun games. 

Below is a link to a website which explains what phonics is and how Phase 1 phonics will help your child learn to read.

Phonics phases explained | TheSchoolRun

Activities to support learning phonics at Ashworth Nursery School include:

• storytelling;
• singing songs;
• listening to rhymes and repeating patterns and refrains;
• playing alliterative games;
• using creative language in role play, drama and dance;
• identifying sounds in names, words in the environment etc.