Reading at Hursthead Infant School

Reading at Hursthead Infant School

Our aim is to encourage and develop a lifelong love of books and reading in our young learners.

We would like to take this opportunity to explain briefly how we promote the teaching of reading at Hursthead Infant School.  Reading is an enjoyable and enriching activity which we want our pupils to embrace.  We have resourced the school well in order to support children’s learning of reading and love of books.  We wish to work in partnership with parents to ensure all of our children have the best possible start to reading.

A child’s journey to become a reader starts with them listening to and sharing books.  This is an invaluable way of showing that books are there to be enjoyed, as well as building children’s vocabulary and giving them a sense of security.  Through sharing books parents are modelling the reading process and showing children enjoyment and learning that can be found from reading.

Once children begin to learn to read, parents should read with them and hear them read, but also continue to devote some time to reading to them so that children will experience a wide range of books and enjoy that precious time with their parents.

Phonics

Children are taught systematic synthetic phonics using the Department of Education validated Rocket Phonics programme. Children in Reception and Year One have five structured phonics sessions each week as well as additional dedicated reading sessions. They also have regular opportunities to hear and discuss stories, poetry and information texts read to them to ensure they develop a love of reading.

The Reading Planet reading books focus on sounds that are taught in class. We also carefully select books from high quality schemes to ensure a breadth of text types and stories.

In the Summer Term in Year One children undertake the Phonics Screening Check, which is a phonics based check where the children are expected to read 40 simple, de-codable words including nonsense words. This is a progress check to identify those children not at an expected level in their reading, and the results will be reported to parents. Children who do not pass the test in Year One will be given additional support in Year Two and will sit the Check again at the end of Year Two.

Things to Remember

• Do hear your child read every day.
• Little and often is more beneficial than a long session a week.