Reading

1 Corinthians 16:14

"Let all that you do be done in love"

Play is the work of children, and through play and interaction, children learn how to talk, listen, read and write.  We use this to support our children through the early reading stages and beyond to create confident readers with a love for books.

Early reading skills start with listening and speaking skills.  Children learn how to use oral forms of language in order to communicate their ideas and thinking.  When they are ready, they start to explore and make sense of written forms.  Here at Egerton, we use ‘Letters and Sounds’ to support these early skills and develop the children’s knowledge until they are ready to read words, then sentences independently and confidently.

Reading is a complex skill to master that requires continuous support and practise.  We encourage the children to take part in daily reading activities to build their understanding and fluency skills.  We want to enthuse the children’s passion for reading and teach them the skills they need to thrive as they enter the world of imagination and fact.  We can do this by exposing them to new exciting texts and authors.

Picture Books

Picture books are an essential part of the reading diet and provide all children the opportunity to access language rich texts that can be easily picked apart for understanding.  These texts hold the key to not only developing reading but also language.  They allow children to see what good story writing looks like and how parts of speech are brought together.  We would encourage all of our children, even those in year 6, to spend time learning from these great authors.

Reading Schemes

Like most schools, the children work their way through a reading scheme of colour banded books.  By following the correct pattern, we can ensure the children are exposed to accurate levels of language and reading challenge.  It is important the children work through these at a pace which right for them.  When the children move from one band to another, we are not just looking at the words they can read, we are also looking at their inference and comprehension skills.  The children have to be able to demonstrate they thoroughly understand what they are reading and why.  In order for the children to get the very best from a book, they must be able to enjoy the text presented to them.  We encourage the children to become reading detectives as they learn to pick apart the hidden messages contained within a story and help them to learn how to read for pleasure which in turn allows them to become engaged readers with a developed love for stories.

Reading at Home

There are many ways you can support your child whilst at home.  Reading should, where possible, take place daily.  Daily reading interaction allows you child to build their fluency and confidence skills which in turn, will make them better readers in the future.  To make the most of reading together, here are a few strategies that will help you to support your child whilst they are reading.

• Talk to your child about the book they have been given.  It is important the children feel comfortable and confident to tackle the book they have chosen.  Allow them time to look through the pages and talk about what they can see.  This is an ideal opportunity for you to point out new characters, or unusual language they may come across.
• Look at the pictures.  The pictures help your child to make sense of the texts they are reading. Reading is not a test to see what they can or cannot read the very first time they look at a book.  Positive interaction between your child and a book is what is needed to develop a love for reading.
• Read a book more than once.  Your child may choose the same book over and over again.  There is nothing wrong with this, and in fact, we would encourage them to re-read a text.  This gives your child the chance to develop other skills such as intonation and the chance to identifying links they didn’t spot the first time.
• Listen to your child.  It doesn’t matter how good your child is at reading we recommend you listen to your child.  Reading aloud is a brilliant skill to develop and this is a comfortable way to grow this skill.  They are never too old to read aloud and it is a skill many children will be required to use further on in their learning journey.
• Ask questions.  Asking open ended questions, questions that require more than a yes/no answer, whilst they are reading.  This encourages your child to really think about what is happening in the story because after all, this is the whole point of enjoying a text.  By encouraging your child to think about the finer details they are gaining far more from their reading experience and will be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a journey.