The best readers read regularly and read a wide range of different texts. We encourage you to develop your child’s reading by exposing them to reading in lots of different contexts, be this through newspapers, comics, reading menus and signposts, reading online, looking at fiction and non-fiction books and of course regular visits to the library.

 Reading with your child should be a special time together, free from distraction and background noise. Try to read to your child as well as finding time for them to read to you. Lots of praise and encouragement is key, particularly for early readers. Try to focus on the words they are reading confidently, rather than just picking up on mistakes. If your child is hesitating with a word, try to encourage them to use different strategies to have a guess before you offer the correct word. They may be able to sound out, use the pictures for clues or think about what would make sense in the context of the sentence.

Every child in school will bring home a weekly library book. The children have a free choice and they may not always select a book that they can read independently. In addition to this free choice home reader, children in Reception and Year 1 also bring home a levelled book from a reading scheme. This is likely to be either Ginn or Oxford Reading Tree. From Year 2 upwards the majority of pupils are reading fluently and will continue reading a levelled reading book to their teacher at school, but they will no longer bring this book home to read to you.  It is important that your child reads aloud to you whatever their age, so we encourage you to continue reading regularly together at home, even when you no longer receive a levelled reading scheme book.

Phonics and Reading Schemes used in KS1:

Jolly Phonics

Letters and Sounds

Ginn Reading Scheme

Oxford Reading Tree

New Way Reading