Reading
Early Reading
Before a child is able to read, they must firstly be able to recognise sounds. This is why it is critical that you speak to your child regularly and consistently, introducing new vocabulary to them on a daily basis. This consistent talk with your child will develop their ability to recognise sounds in their environment and phonemes within words.
In nursery, we spend lots of time ensuring your child can recognise sounds in the environment such as body percussion, musical instruments and moving on to orally blending and segmenting words. Supporting your child at home in nursery with recognising sounds and orally blending and segmenting (splitting up and putting back together) words will support them greatly in their transition to formal phonics Sounds Write teaching in reception. Also reading to your child at any chance you get will give them a huge boost – story time, bed time stories, and even reading signs at the shops or when out and about will put them in a great position at the start of their reading journey.
Sounds Write
Once your child starts reception, they will begin formal, daily phonics teaching using a Department for Education (DfE) approved systematic, synthetic phonics approach – Sounds Write. Your child will be taught sounds starting with the initial code. This will teach your child which grapheme (letter) represents each sound. After formal teaching of each sound(s), your child will be provided with a decodable reader book for the week.
We have heavily invested in Sounds Write and Dandelion phonetically matched decodable readers. These decodable reading books only include sounds that your child has already been taught. Please read this book repeatedly with your child across the week so they have every opportunity to practise both decoding these sounds and blending and segmenting (breaking the word into sounds and then putting it back together).
How can you support your child with their home reading in reception and years one and two?
The best way to support your child’s reading in these critical, formative years is to ensure you are reading with them as much as possible. This means reading with your child and signing their reading record a minimum of three times per week. At Collierley Primary School, this is our minimum expectation for home reading. We would strongly encourage you to read with your child more than this and daily wherever possible. Your child will bring home a new book each week. If this does not happen, please speak to your child’s class teacher or Mr Thompson, our reading and English lead.
Please also support your child in recognising sounds. It is important that your child recognises that graphemes (letter/s) can represent different phonemes (sounds) in different word contexts. If your child is struggling with a sound, highlight those letters and ask what sound they think it makes. It may take them a couple of tries and if they then still do not get it, you can inform them of the phoneme that the grapheme represents. After they recognise the phoneme, start again from the beginning of the word – using a pen with the lid on or an old sewing needle is excellent for pointing to specific graphemes in words!
Segmenting and blending is one of the most challenging skills for children to grasp so please don’t be discouraged if your child finds it challenging – it’s all about practise! Begin by pointing to the first grapheme in a word and ask what sound does this make, then move onto the next grapheme and so on. Using a pointer such as the ones mentioned above really helps! Once your child has recognised all of the phonemes in the word, repeat the process but a little quicker. Keep doing this until your child can blend these sounds together quickly.
Please click on this document to find out more about how your child develops their ability to read from the Education Endowment Foundation.
What do we do in school to support your child’s reading in reception and years one and two?
All children in these year groups will be read with at minimum three times a week by an adult in school. This, alongside daily formal phonics teaching, ensures the phonetic code your child has been taught is firmly embedded and blending and segmenting skills are honed.
What do we do if your child is a lower ability reader for their age group?
If your child is identified as a lower ability reader, they will be read with five times a week. They may also be provided extra phonics teaching by fully trained and certified Sounds Write teachers and teaching assistants. If this is the case, your child’s class teacher will discuss any areas in which your child may be struggling and provide you with ways to support at home as well.
If you have any concerns about your child’s reading, the best thing to do is to speak to us as soon as you have them. Your child’s class teacher will gladly answer any concerns, questions or queries you may have. Alternatively, you can email our reading and English lead Mr J. Thompson at j.thompson@collierleyprimary.co.uk
Reading disadvantaged
If, for a variety of reasons, children are unable to meet our minimum home reading expectations then extra provisions are put in place to ensure these children are read with in school as per advice of The Reading Framework – 2021. However, we ensure this is kept to an absolute minimum by engaging with parents and supporting parents in their home-reading confidence. This includes advice, support and parents sessions.
Accelerated Reader
Once your child has worked through Sounds Write into the summer term of year two, the majority of children will be classified as fluent readers. This means that they can begin moving onto our book banded system – Accelerated Reader. Towards the end of year two, your child will take a baseline reading assessment.
This reading assessment provides us with a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) for your child. This ZPD gives your child a range of books to choose from e.g 2.4 to 2.9. Your child will then have free choice of any of the books within this range. Once your child has completed reading this book both at home and during our daily thirty minute reading sessions, they will take a quiz on that book using the Accelerated Reader app.
You can also take quizzes at home if you finish a book on a weekend or during the holidays – just click on this link!
How can you support your child with their home reading through Accelerated Reader?
Our home reading expectations remain the same from the first book your child brings home in reception to the last one they bring home in year six. All children must be read with a minimum of three times a week at home and have their reading records signed by an adult. Again, this is a minimum expectation and going above and beyond this minimum expectation is strongly encouraged to give your child the best possible opportunity to thrive, not only in reading, but across the curriculum.
Ensure your child is reading well and reading fluently. Being on Accelerated Reader, your child should be fluent in their reading but this does not mean they may not sometimes struggle with words. Go back to the basics of splitting the word into sounds or syllables and then blend them together.
Another great way of developing your child’s reading ability is by asking questions. Ask questions about how the characters are feeling and thinking or what they are doing then ask why they know that. Ask questions about the story’s plot and what they think is going to happen next as well. Encouraging conversation about your child’s book is a great way of developing their understanding of what it is they are reading.
Vocabulary is key. Make sure you support your child in developing their understanding of a wide range of rich vocabulary by discussing both the meaning of words and synonyms (words that mean the same or similar things) e.g. stroll/walk, nervous/tentative.
How do we support your child with their school reading through Accelerated Reader?
Once your child is on the Accelerated Reader programme, they will be read with once a week by an adult in school and have their reading record signed.
What do we do if your child is a lower ability reader for their age group?
If your child is in the bottom 20% of pupils based on our termly standardised reading assessments, they will be read with three times a week in school by an adult and have their reading record signed each time.
‘Non-fluent readers’
If your child is a ‘non-fluent reader’ then they will participate in a systematic intervention programme taught by fully qualified, Sounds Write certified teachers and teaching assistants. They will also have age-appropriate decodable readers that follow their intervention programme with the code they know.
We classify ‘non-fluent readers’ as any child who:
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a) May not have passed the key stage one phonics screening check.
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b) Struggles regularly and consistently with decoding.
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c) Struggles regularly and consistently with segmenting and blending.
These children are identified through one-to-one reading and assessed using a baseline assessment linked to Sounds Write levels. After this assessment, children are taught the code they do not have the knowledge of. Their weekly decodable reader then follows their teaching of this code. These children are assessed at the end of each ‘level’ before moving up to the next one. These levels move all of the way up to the end of Sounds Write, in turn providing our children with a clear, systematic pathway to fluency.
Reading disadvantaged
If, for a variety of reasons, children are unable to meet our minimum home reading expectations then extra provisions are put in place to ensure these children are read with in school as per advice of The Reading Framework – 2021. However, we ensure this is kept to an absolute minimum by engaging with parents and supporting parents in their home-reading confidence. This includes advice, support and parents sessions.
Supporting and developing reading for pleasure at Collierley
We support and develop a culture of reading for pleasure at Collierley using the following:
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Daily story time from reception to year six
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World book day
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Celebrating those who go above and beyond in their reading
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Developing and promoting a culture of reading across school and in the community