Reading Scheme and Phonics

At St Hild’s we are passionate about developing life-long reading habits and equipping our children with the very best reading skills in order to prepare them for their learning across the curriculum and beyond.

We are eager to enthuse children to read for pleasure.  We aim to inspire our children through both a wealth of opportunities to read and be read to as well as exposing them to literary role models.  This year, our children were able to vote for their own class names which are all linked with famous authors. 

What is our approach to the teaching of reading?

Across school, we plan many opportunities to teach both decoding and comprehension skills through Phonics sessions, shared reading, Guided Reading lessons, comprehension activities and independent reading activities. Your child will read regularly with an adult in school, usually in small groups and sometimes 1:1. They will read a wide range of texts in all areas of the curriculum.

How can you help your child with their reading?

• To develop effective reading strategies, fluency and their comprehension it is essential that your child reads regularly at home, daily if possible.
• In school both our Bug Club programme in EYFS and KS1 and Accelerated Reader programme in KS2 offer children rewards and incentives for reading.  
• We ask that you support us by dedicating at least ten minutes per day to listen to your child read their reading book and talk about the book they have read.
• We have produced a booklet with ideas of questions you can ask your child and ways in which you can  help them build words they are unsure of. Please see below.
• To help us monitor your child’s reading, please ensure that you sign your child’s red Reading Together booklet and feel free to write a short comment to let us know how your child is getting on.
  Remember to return reading books and Reading Together books to school every day, even if your child hasn’t read, as your child’s class teacher will be writing comments during Guided Reading sessions to let you know how your child is progressing.

If you have any questions about your child’s reading, please arrange to see your child’s class teacher or Mrs Harvey, the English lead.

Thank you for your support.

Phonics

In September 2022, we introduced Bug Club Phonics to help our children learn to read.  We believe this teaching programme offers the exciting, inclusive and challenging learning opportunities we feel our children need.  

All the books in Bug Club Phonics have been carefully matched to sounds our children can read so that books are at exactly the right level for them. Children have access to a personalised website with online books allocated by our teachers as well as a printed book.

Children read books to earn ‘ActiveLearn Coins’. By reading more books, our children will earn enough coins to ‘buy’ a reward in one of the many reward schemes.

Books include many interactive activities.  Children also have access to many other games and activities to support their learning.  

To find out more information, please see the documents below.  

Accelerated Reader

In September 2022, we introduced Accelerated Reader to help our children learn to read in KS2 (this programme is also used by some Year 2 children).  We believe this teaching programme offers a smooth transition from our Bug Club Phonics programme.  Equally, as children will be able to select their own book from the right range of the library, we strongly believe it motivates and inspires children to read for pleasure.  

Children read books before taking an electronic quiz which provides instant feedback for staff and pupils.  Children earn points by reading more books and answering their quiz questions correctly.  Each child’s account will record the books they have read so far within the academic year.

To find out more information, please see the documents below.