This area of the curriculum involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children are taught to read using a variety of skills, including the teaching of phonics using the Read Write Inc scheme of work. We also use picture/word recognition and high frequency words. Writing is a vital life skill. Even though there are ever increasing mediums for written communication, e.g. text, email, it is still necessary for children to be able to communicate using a good standard of written English.