Earlsheaton Infant School

Reading is one of the most important life skills that we equip your child with and we aim to send all of our Year Two children on to their Junior schools being able to read confidently and fluently with a love of books that will stay with them the rest of their lives.

Phonics

Phonics is all about teaching children the sounds of the English language. They learn to recognise, say and blend these sounds into words that are written on the page. We have a daily phonics session for all children where they are grouped according to the stage they are at. We use a scheme published by LCP as our main planning tool, supplemented by a great website called Phonics Play. 

Guided Reading

Our children have a dedicated reading session in class every day, some of which will be led by the teacher, some by the teaching assistant and some will be opportunities to read with their friends or alone. School reading sessions use books from the Oxford University Press 'Project X' scheme as well as 'Discovery World' non-fiction books.

Home Reading

Children will also bring home books from the Oxford 'Biff, Chip and Kipper' series every week. Year Two children will move onto the Oxford 'Treetops' scheme when they are reading at an above average level. Please share these books with your child and write down on their reading record card when you have done this. Please note, books will not be changed if you do not sign the card to say your child has read each book. 

We want our children to become life-long readers. However, this won't happen by children just reading scheme books in school. We hope you will support us by encouraging your children to read at home; this can be reading anything- books, comics, leaflets, recipies, the TV guide, street signs or even adverts.  

Look for things connected to your child's interests. There are lots of books and comics related to favourite TV and film characters. Books about animals, sports or suprheroes are always popular. If your child likes facts then reading for information will grab their attention. Lots of car-mad boys enjoy looking at Auto Trader, football fans will enjoy sharing the sports pages in the newspaper with you.

Many supermarkets and other shops stock a large range of children's books now, usually at good prices. Next time your child has earned a treat why not go and choose a new book together? For a huge choice of free books then why not join the local library with your child? That way you'll always have access to a selection of old favourites you might remember from when you were little as well as the best new children's books published today.

One of the best times to share a story is bedtime. Choose a book, tuck your child in or snuggle down on the sofa together and enjoy a good book. Your child will enjoy hearing you tell the story using lots of different voices or if they are growing in confidence as a reader they may want to read it you! You could always share it- you read a page then they read a page. Talk about the pictures- what can they see? How do the characters feel? Why does your child think that? These are questions we ask in school so your child will know what sort of things to look for and say. 

Try not to get cross if your child chooses the same book for ten nights in a row. Children enjoy hearing the same story because it is familiar and they can be confident about reading without making mistakes. 

Finally- who does the bedtime story in your house? Is it always mum? Share it out! Bedtime reading can be even more fun if it's sometimes dad, sometimes grandma or granddad or even an older brother or sister.