Learning to Read

At Iver Village Infant Academy we recognise that there are lots of different ways to teach reading. We use a combination of different strategies and resources to deliver high-quality experiences to achieve the best results for our children.  

Reading

You may think that your child’s reading experience is simply the reading book which comes home from school, but reading is happening all the time in our classroom and in our school. It is taught in specific literacy lessons, but children are practising and using their ‘reading’ constantly. A child’s ‘reading journey’ begins with ‘learning to read’ and moves on into ‘reading to learn’. This advice will help you to make sense of the different terminology and understand how reading is taught and developed at Iver Village Infant School.

Reading Skills

You will probably hear about different methods of teaching and practising reading such as:

Phonics

Children start to learn how to read by using phonics - Read Write inc at IVIA. They also need to recognise and remember those 'tricky words' that cannot be sounded out letter by letter, e.g. 'the' or 'said'.  

• There are special phonic 'decodable' books that help children to practice their early reading
• At 6 years old (in the Summer term of Y1) children sit a statutory 'phonic screening check' to ensure they are making good progress in the basic phonics skills. Children who do not reach the expected standard will continue to learn the basics of phonics and will resit the statutory test in Year 2.

Comprehension

• Children also draw on their own experiences (the language and stories they know), the setting of the story and the pictures, to help them understand what they are reading about. Comprehension skills are vital in making sense of what the words say and interpreting meaning.

 Accelerated Reader

At IVIA, we do not follow a reading scheme once children are competent at decoding and reading in our phonics teaching using Read Write inc. Instead the children are levelled on their comprehension using Accelerated Reader assessments and then have the freedom to select real books based on their own ability. The children take a quiz after finishing reading every book, and will be re-assessed regularly to track their progress. For more information on Accelerate Reader here:

https://uk.renaissance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/AR-parents-guide-updated.pdf

Different types of reading

• Children are encouraged to read stories, plays, poetry, and information, but remember that reading is all about words, not just books, and words are everywhere in a school. Children read to help them with their work, e.g. instructions, displays, word lists for tricky words, projects (the Egyptians), other subjects (Science), signs, rules etc. As a school, we make sure that reading in integral in all learning. We live in a digital world and your children will do plenty of digital reading both at school and at home. They will take much of this in their stride, so embrace it!

Speaking, listening, reading and writing...

• Good speaking and listening underpin so much good reading and writing so there is often lots of talk in the classroom. Children need a rich bank of words to make sense of their reading and to use in their writing. When they are learning early reading skills, there is a very close connection between sounding out, and spelling – putting the letters back together again to write. Children will start writing from Reception; the spelling may not always be quite right, but as they work out the code and the rules, it quickly develops.
• Each week we offer children the opportunity to take part in Star Speaker - this is their chance to select a subject they are excited or passionate about and prepare a small presentation for their peers. They are supported with the skills required for speaking clearly with volume and expression. 

Home/School links

It is vital that there is communication between you and Iver Village Infant school. You should:

• Attend curriculum meetings and workshops to hear about how the school teaches the curriculum – and how you can best support your child.
• Use this website for more information about the curriculum and activities at IVIA.
•  Use the daily diary to communicate messages.
• Speak to the class teacher after school if you have a query or concern.
• Book an appointment if you need a little bit more time to discuss a concern.
• Attend open evenings or parent consultation meetings for one-to-one meetings with your child’s teacher (but don’t wait for this if you have urgent concerns!).
• Offer to help in the classroom or school; teachers love to have extra ears to hear children reading.

Reading at home

As parents, you can make the biggest difference to your child’s success as a reader by encouraging your child to read as much and as widely as possible at home. Your child has a reading bag/book bag to keep the take-home reading book in (and other homework). We expect a minimum of ten minutes reading daily, building up to twenty minutes each day.