At Scartho Infants’ School and Nursery we fully believe that reading is an important skill which aids learning in all curriculum areas.  To this end, we are dedicated to ensuring all children enjoy and develop a love of reading as well as becoming confident, fluent readers. 

In Foundation Stage 1 (Nursery) children are encouraged to handle and share books, listen, enjoy and talk about stories together.  In addition, children focus on an initial letter sound everyday through a range of activities.   In Foundation Stage 2 (Reception) these skills are developed, and parents/carers are invited to a meeting and given further information explaining ways to support your child to not only become a reader, but also develop a love of reading. 

From Foundation Stage 2 (Reception) onwards, daily, focused phonics teaching provides the basis for reading skills and we use a wide variety of resources to provide the material for teaching your child to read throughout the school.  Reading frequently is vital in the acquisition of reading skills, and to this end, the school expects you to support your child’s learning by hearing them read on a regular basis. The Reading Record (purple book) is a record of reading and parents/carers should record when the child is heard read, including a comment. This provides a useful route for liaison and communication on reading matters.

The ways we develop reading in school

We currently use Read, Write, Inc (RWI) as our phonics scheme across the school.

• In KS1 we teach reading skills sessions fours times a week as a class group.
• You child will be heard read daily as part of their RWI phonics teaching.
• Your child will be sent a RWI reading scheme book for you to enjoy at home with them that relates to the work in their daily RWI group.
• Finally, because we believe reading should be fun, we also encourage your child to choose a book to share at home from the class library.

Helping your child to become a reader at home

We would like to work in partnership with you, in helping your child to develop a life long love of reading. By reading to and hearing your child read at least 5 times a week and engaging with the suggestions below you will support and enhance your child’s achievement, not only in reading but across the curriculum.

• Encourage your child to notice print in the environment. Point out the difference between upper case (capital) and lower case letters, e.g. in street names, road signs, on tickets, bills, notes, recipes, shopping lists, etc..
• Share books with your child, frequently. Let your child see you deriving pleasure from books or gaining information from the printed word.
• Join the local library and help your child to choose books. Remember that some children often prefer to read non-fiction, and all children benefit from reading a wide range of books
• At school we endeavour to provide stimulating quality books. Do, however, remember that to develop a love of reading, there should also be breadth; children should also have access to reading matter of their own choice, including comics, to read in their spare time - we all like to read the occasional best-seller on holiday!
• Teach your child poems, nursery rhymes and songs. These emphasise the pattern of the English language.
• Read aloud to your child. Share the book and follow the print with your finger to emphasise the left to right orientation of print.  Encourage your child to join in with repetitive phrases, and talk about, or even play act what you have read.
• Do jigsaws and matching games with your child to improve his/her visual perception.
• Teach your child the pure sounds which the letters of the alphabet make.

Things to remember

• Try not to worry about your child's reading, it is important to remember that children learn at their own rate. Sometimes a child may reach a plateau when their reading hardly appears to progress at all, and then it suddenly may begin to improve again - this is all quite normal.
• Please do not make reading a race to get through the reading scheme, or a competition between family or friends - this can really lower a child’s self-esteem and confidence with reading.
• It is very common for children to reverse when reading, e.g. words, such as was/saw or letter such as b, d, p and q.
• Children will often find long, interesting words like “elephant” and “aeroplane” easier to read than a short word like “as” or “do”.
• At first, children may not be able to recognise reading book vocabulary in other contexts - be patient!
• Children pick up visual clues from the pictures in the books that they are reading, this is a skill in itself, and not cheating!
• Children pick up auditory clues by learning the sounds that letters make and blending them together to form words by using their developing phonics skills. This is called ‘sounding out’.
• Some words cannot be ‘sounded out’, they need memorising by the look and pattern of the word.

Useful links

For more information on the correct pronunciation of the phonic code, please click on the link below.

http://youtu.be/IwJx1NSineE?t=166