Teaching Early Reading

We strive to teach the children the key skills to be able to read, as well as a passion and love for books and reading. We provide an environment conducive to this by ensuring children are exposed to a rich variety of texts, opportunities to share and enjoy books and the role models they need to experience why reading is so great!

The teaching of reading begins with phonics and decodable phonic books, making sure the reading books connect closely to the children’s phonic knowledge when they are learning to read. Books match the sounds they can sound blend and re-reading is encouraged to build up fluency. In addition, Reception and Key Stage 1 children have the opportunity to read 1:1 with an adult at least once a week. Children also take home a colour-banded book - linked to phonic phases and National Curriculum expectations - to share with parents to develop word reading and comprehension skills.

When children become a fluent word reader and they have learned all the letter and sound combinations, they will be able to try and read any unfamiliar words in a wide range of books.

Guided Reading is a dedicated, accurately planned session during which children are taught the skills to become confident, independent and motivated readers. Skills we teach include; application of phonics to decode words, self-correction, self-monitoring, omission to work out unknown words, reading for meaning and inference.

Reading with your child at home

At school your child will choose a book of their choice, from the coloured book band they are on, based on their reading level. You can support your child by reading with them for 5 minutes every day and making a note in their reading record to communicate with your child's class teacher.