Reading

How does school help my child to read?

Reading is a fundamental part of everything we do at Shelton Infant School.  We believe that it is the skill that underpins everything that is taught and opens the door to learning across the curriculum.  Our intent is for children to be able to read any text, to understand any text and to interpret any text. We have designed our own ‘Learning Aliens’ to help children remember the different skills they need when reading books. We have found that our children respond particularly well to this approach, eg helping ‘Vom’ (the vocabulary alien) to fill his bucket with unfamiliar and challenging words.

Children participate in three "Practise Reading" sessions each week in line with the approach advocated by the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised validated phonics programme.  In these sessions the children read as a member of a small group of pupils to an adult.  The books read by the children in these sessions are closely matched to their secure phonetic knowledge.  The first session each week focuses on decoding the text.  The second session is intended to develop prosody (fluency) and in the final session the emphasis is on developing comprehension.  The children also take home a copy of their "Practise Reading" book to read at home.  The children will also choose a "Sharing Book" from a selection of high quality texts, to share at home with an adult.  This book is intended to develop the children's love of reading for pleasure.  Further details may be found by accessing the Little Wandle website (https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/ - see the "Books Coming Home" section).

Children who find it difficult to keep up with the pace at which Little Wandle is taught will benefit from regular, additional "Keep up" sessions.  Year 2 children who are not at the expected reading level take part in a "Rapid Catch Up" programme.  These will be delivered to children either individually or in small groups.

When the children are in Year 2 and have completed the Little Wandle phonics programme they will participate in Guided Reading group sessions to consolidate their reading skills.  This also allows children to practise and develop their reading in front of a small audience. The children will also read individually to an adult.

Staff regularly read to the children to ensure that they are familiar with both traditional and new texts.  In Nursery and Reception, children benefit from exploring the Rhyme of the Week and Story Chest activities.  Staff rotate around different classrooms with individual Author Boxes, showcasing and exploring stories from lesser known authors with each class.  Examples include Giles Andreae, Jeanne Willis, Jon Klassen, Mini Grey and Dean Village.

Our Learning Aliens!

Vocabulary Vom, Inference Inky, Prediction Pob, Explainer Esk, Retriever Ribble and Sequencer Slurp.

Reading Books

Whilst children are following the Little Wandle phonics programme they will be given books closely matched to their secure phonetic knowledge. These books are selected from the Collins Big Cat Phonics / Little Wandle scheme.  All of these books contain highly decodable text with a mix of stories and non-fiction to foster a love of reading in all children. 

In Year 2 when children have completed the Little Wandle programme they will choose books from Oxford Reading Tree and Project X.  They will also be able to select a "Free Reader" book - these are chapter books written by a range of different authors, selected to appeal to our young pupils.

Reading events

At Shelton Infant School we promote a love of reading throughout the year at our parental reading events.  These are great opportunities for parents to get involved in reading and to spend some quality time with their child sharing a wide range of books. Each year all families are invited to a range of different reading events:

• Come to school early for a Reading Breakfast to read books with their child before enjoying a tasty breakfast. Sometimes Rammie (the Derby County mascot) also comes along to share his love of reading.
• In the dark evenings of January, children return to school dressed in their pyjamas and with their cuddly toys to share books with their parents followed by a tasty supper. At the end of the evening Mr Leigh reads a story to everyone by lamplight!
• In the summer we hold a reading picnic for parents to read outside with their children followed by a yummy picnic and a chance to play together on our zoned playground.
• Book and Biscuit afternoons where parents can observe the teacher sharing a book with the class before reading with their child whilst enjoying school biscuits!
• Observe phonic lessons in school so that parents can see first-hand the structure of the daily phonics lesson.
• Two book fairs each year where parents can purchase a range of books at very reasonable prices.

All of these events are free of charge and pre-school children & older children are encouraged to attend our breakfast and bedtime reading events.

We also plan whole school topics that are based around a genre of books eg: Fairy-tale week, Stories in Classrooms, Stories from around the World.  These weeks are usually enhanced with all children working with the Creative Practitioner upon exciting activities to further develop children's knowledge and understanding of the stories.

(please click here to see our WOW! factor gallery)

School library

We want the children to develop a love of reading for pleasure.  Children regularly access the school library as part of the curriculum and are also invited to attend an after school lending library to choose books to take home and share with their family.  Each child has their own library card and every time they visit our after school library they receive a sticker for their card.  Once they have borrowed books on 10 occasions they receive a special certificate and choose a story book to keep.  Children also receive Shelton Infant School University credits for attending our after school lending library.  Those children unable to visit the library are able to select from a box of books in the classroom.

Reading workshops

In September, we offer a reading workshop and a phonic workshop to all Reception parents. These workshops are designed to support parents with all aspects of reading, from learning the key vocabulary to ways in which parents can support their child at home. The workshop presentations can be found by clicking here.

Rewards

Encouraging children to read little and often is very important at Shelton Infant School and we have many rewards for the children who read regularly at home. These include class sticker charts, bronze, silver and gold awards and special reading certificates that children are presented with during our whole-school weekly celebration assembly.

How do I help my child to read?

• Read with them little and often.
• Model a good reader – read newspapers, bedtime stories, visit the library, ENJOY READING!
• Prompt children on a range of skills they can use to understand the text: looking for any picture clues, sounding out any unknown words, reading around the sentence to try and find the meaning of a word, predicting what they think will happen.
• Allow them to read books or comics they are interested in.
• Play some reading games with the children. Some suggestions can be found on our reading workshop PowerPoint.

Should you wish to discuss any aspect of our English curriculum, or should you like to receive further information, please contact school and ask for Mrs Lisa Sutton or Mr Dan Smith, our English Leaders.