Reading at Short Wood

We know that the reading ability of our children has a huge impact on all areas of the curriculum. Teaching children to be proficient and fluent readers, as well as developing a love of reading, is one of our top priorities in school. We use a range of initiatives and interventions to support children across all of the key stages, to ensure that every pupil will both learn to read and love reading, regardless of their background, needs or abilities.

At Short Wood, we have a number of aims:

• to enable all of our children to become successful and engaged readers
• to promote a love of reading across the school
• to deliver a comprehensive phonics curriculum, where all children are taught to be fluent and confident readers
• to follow a whole school approach to reading, which is embedded within the whole curriculum
• to use quick and effective interventions to ensure that all of our children become successful readers
• to develop the skills of the teaching staff so that the quality of the reading teaching in school is outstanding

Top Tips to Support Your Child in Reading

Sharing books and reading at home is a wonderful activity for you to do with your children. Research shows that children who regularly read at home attain much better outcomes across the whole school curriculum when compared to children who don't. It will also set them up as a reader for life.

We ask that you spend 10 minutes a day sharing books and reading at home.

There are lots of things that you can do to help:

Early Readers

• point out sounds and logos when you go shopping
• talk about the pictures in the books that you share and discuss what might happen next
• teach your child nursery rhymes and songs
• read favourite stories again and again
• use the phonics resources sent home by your class teachers to support your child to recognise sounds and to blend words

 Read Write Inc phonics

This is the phonics scheme that we use in school to teach your child to decode words and to read fluently. Each letter sound has a picture and a rhyme to help your child remember it. 

These videos will help explain a little more about phonics.

Older Readers

• encourage your child to talk about what is happening in the book
• let them express opinions about the story and the characters
• remind children to sound out any words they are stuck on
• encourage your child to read out loud to you, using expression to show they understand the story
• encourage your child to read more challenging books and try out new authors

The Oxford Owl Website has lots of information and books to help you support reading at home.

Oxford Owl