Reading
Ladycross Infant School aims to foster a lifelong love of reading so that the children are able to achieve the best they can through all adventures in their life. For this reason we have developed Ladycross Reading Pledges.
Ladycross reading pledge:
Your child will start by learning to read key words (sometimes referred to as ‘tricky’ words) alongside the phoneme (sound) that each letter represents. In addition to this we endeavour to embed a love of books and of reading. This is done in many ways – by reading regularly to the children and sharing books together, by listening to and watching stories on the interactive whiteboards, by telling stories and by encouraging the children to read for pleasure in and around our school reading areas and classrooms. As your child becomes a more confident and fluent reader, we continue to teach them the two key elements to reading – word recognition and comprehension.
The link below is a useful video for parents to gain a greater understanding of synthetic phonics.
https://www.risingstars-uk.com/series/rising-stars-reading-planet/phonics-guide/advice-for-parents
High quality texts: Each year group has 6 quality texts each half term which consist of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, these books are read at the end of each day during story time. The texts have been chosen to link into the topics and interests of each class, each text has DERIC (Describe, Explain, Retrieve, Interpret and Choice) questions which go alongside it to encourage high quality questioning and consistency in each class.
Word reading: This teaches the children to apply their phonic knowledge to read words, learn tricky words that don’t follow obvious reading patterns and rules, read quickly and accurately, read aloud and to themselves and to re-read books to build up fluency and confidence.
Comprehension: This teaches children to listen to, discuss and express their views, discuss the sequence of events in a story, understand non-fiction as well as fiction books and poetry. It also helps children to discuss their favourite words and phrases, recognise recurring language, check that text makes sense and draw on background information. As well as answering and asking questions and making inferences and predictions about what might happen next.
As you will already be aware, your child reads regularly in school during whole class shared reading, guided reading in a group and through individual reading sessions with a member of staff or adult volunteer.
Reading throughout the day: reading is encouraged throughout the school day in all areas of the curriculum, this is done to encourage confidence, fluency and comprehensions skills throughout the school day.
Below are our 'DERIC' Owls, we use these during shared reading sessions to develop the children's knowledge and skills whilst reading text or watching short clips, they stand for Describe, Explain, Retrieve, Interpret and Choice. During Reception sessions the children focus on Retrieve, Interpret and Choice questions through whole group inputs. As the children develop into KS1, sessions are delivered with an expectation of all of the different types on questions. This ensures our children have a variety of different questions to answer using comprehension and inference skills.
Reading Books
At Ladycross we use a reading scheme developed by Rising Stars called “Reading Planet”, our reading books run alongside our 'Rocket Phonics' phonic scheme. The scheme is designed to boost comprehension skills through in-book quizzes, enrich the school curriculum with exciting topic linked non-fiction texts and get all children hooked on reading stories about characters and themes that reflect their real world.
Your child will take home 1 Reading Planet book from school. These books are grouped into levels based on the phonemes (sounds) needed to read the words inside. This way, we can closely match children’s reading books to the phonemes they know and boost both their enjoyment and progress.
Please encourage as much reading as you can at home, as often as you possibly can. This can be done through letting your child read signs and posters when walking home from school or in and around the shops. Let your child see you reading, share bed time stories together (even if you’re asked to read the same story over and over again!) and encourage your child to read to you, we always recommend little and often. If you have any questions about reading or any concerns about your child and their reading please speak to your child’s class teacher, or a member of staff who will only be too happy to help.
Reading Bookmarks
Each child in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive a special bookmark to keep in their tray at school. They receive a tick for every time they read at home (maximum one tick per day) and once they've reached a certain amount of reads (year group dependent) they receive a special, sparkly sticker to stick on their bookmark. When the bookmark is complete they receive a certificate presented by Mrs McKinley in achievement assembly.