Early Reading

The importance of reading

“Reading is important because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything.” – Tomie de Paola

Language and literacy are the building blocks for success in school, work and life. This is why we value early reading and phonics at our Academy.

Nursery

Reading is one of the most important lifelong skills that children will begin to develop while they are in our nursery. We actively teach the skills needed for children to become good readers using a range of activities, strategies and resources.  First and foremost, we aim to instil a love of reading in our children. We do this by sharing carefully selected stories with the children every day. As well as reading to the children, we encourage them to share books with their friends. Our EYFS unit and Nursery classroom have inviting book corners where children can choose their own books to look at or share. We also share key authors and texts with our children in our ‘book boxes’. Children will learn initial sounds linked to their first name and  will be exposed to familiar print that is part of their world in classroom displays.  Home school links are also encouraged, homework tasks are set linked to familiar print and reading.

Before children begin matching letters to sounds in phonics sessions, we teach our children about sounds around them so that they can spot the differences and differentiate between many sounds. In these sessions, use a multi-sensory approach to teach pre-phonic skills including listening, attention, rhyme, songs, alliteration and sound discrimination.

Children will learn and join in with many songs, jingles and rhymes while they are with us. They will develop their own repertoire of Nursery rhymes and maths rhymes to help them learn skills to help them read.  In Nursery, we use a multi-sensory approach to teach pre-phonic skills including listening, attention, rhyme and sound discrimination. 

Reception

In Reception, learning to read becomes an essential part of the children’s daily routine. Children take part in daily phonics sessions and activities following the Read Write Inc scheme.  We use RWI book bag books, which are an age appropriate decodable book scheme that follows the same systematic approach to the sounds taught within the phonics lessons. Children will read books which match sounds that have been taught and the sounds they now know. Alongside their phonics lessons, we continue to immerse children in high-quality texts which are read aloud to the children every day.  At the same time, we teach them to write the sounds and use this knowledge to spell, leading to writing short sentences. Alongside their phonics lessons, we continue to immerse children in high-quality texts which are read aloud to the children every day. We use story-maps as a way of encouraging children to learn these narratives by heart so that they can retell them with confidence. Children are encouraged to select their own books to read which are on display in the book corner.

Phonics

Starting in Reception, we use the Read Write Inc phonics scheme as a method of learning letter sounds and blending them together to read and write words. As part of this, children have daily phonics sessions in small groups where they participate in speaking, listening and spelling activities that are matched to their developing needs. The teachers draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure children are stretched and challenged and to identify children who may need additional support. Children work through the different sets, learning and developing their phonics sounds and knowledge. They also participate in small group shared reading sessions as well as enjoying a picture book read to them daily.

How can parents and carers help at home?

There is much you can do to support your child at home.

• Talk to your children. The most important thing you can do is to talk to your child and listen to them when they are talking to you. Try to extend their vocabulary range and their skill at talking in increasingly more complex sentences. For example, try to teach them alternative words for ideas, or nouns they already know.
• Read to them and always discuss the story you are reading to try to build your child’s comprehension skills and understanding.
• Practise the sounds they know at home. The sounds the children know are in the front of their home reading books.
• Listen to your child read every night. Find a quiet time to hear your child read and use lots and lots of praise to encourage them.
• Join our local library.
• Register your child for Imagination Library books.
• Download the Ten Top Tips guide.

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