Growing a love of reading

1. Growing a love of reading At St Mary’s children learn to read through the teaching of synthetic, systematic phonics. Children have phonics lessons every morning from reception to year 2, and beyond if necessary. We use the letters and sounds scheme in conjunction with LCP phonics. Phonics is reinforced through 1:1 reading 4 times a week in KS1. Alongside phonics we teach comprehension skills through guided reading on a weekly basis throughout all year groups. In KS2 a much greater emphasis is placed upon the comprehension skills, which pupils can then use in their own writing. Our main reading scheme is Oxford Owl, we use books from our extensive library and ebooks from the Oxford Owl website. We add to the depth of children’s reading by using many more additional books.

2. Phonics-decoding To understand print has meaning-decoding the text. We use Letters and sounds. We teach the phonetic sounds of the English Language. We teach how to recognise the sounds. Comprehension To understand the text at a deeper level through discussion Understanding the structure of stories. Reading for enjoyment. Story time. Sharing books with parents. Choosing own books.

3. How parents can help Enjoy books at home with your children. Read different genres. Practice their reading books with them. Practice their high frequency and tricky words with them. In school your children will have 20 minutes of phonics daily. Read 1:1 with a member of staff 4 times a week. Read as a group and discuss books with their class teacher.

4. Results Your children will have a love of reading. The ability to blend sounds to read, will enable your child to segment sounds to spell. The ability to discuss and identify different types of text, will enable your child to write any form of text, reports, stories, lists, plays, poetry