Reading in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1
We use a variety of different books in school to help us teach reading and foster a love of books.
At Norbreck, we use a mixture of Oxford Reading Tree, Big Cat, Floppy’s Phonics and
Treetops reading books. We group our home reading books into colour bands. These books
are structured to ensure that your child can take steady and progressive steps
towards reading success. Many have notes at the back with examples of key questions
to ask to check your child has understood what they have read. We want to build
confident, competent readers who have a real enjoyment of books.
Reading skills- Phonics
Children start to learn how to read, by using phonics. They also need to
recognise and remember those 'tricky words' that cannot be sounded out letter by
letter e.g. ‘the’ or ‘said’.
There are special phonic 'decodable' books that help them to practise their
early reading.
Comprehension
Children also draw on their own experiences (the language and stories they know), the
setting of the story and the pictures to help them understand what they are reading
about. Comprehension skills are vital in making sense of what the words say and
interpreting meaning.
In school, we use a range of ways to teach and practise reading such as shared
reading, phonics, guided reading, group reading, Individual reading, ‘buddy’ reading,
storytime and reading at home.
Accelerated Reader
In 2017 we introduced Accelerated Reader. This runs from Year 3 up to Year 6.
If you want to know more about Accelerated Reader you can follow this link
http://www.renlearn.co.uk/accelerated-reader/
From the Accelerated Reader website you can also download the Accelerated Reader App and the Book Finder.
“Children and young people who use AR tend to enjoy reading more, do it more often and think more positively about reading than their peers who do not use AR. They are also more likely to see a link between reading and their successes.”
Dr Christina Clark, National Literacy Trust