Here at The Avenue, we are committed to developing our children’s love of books and passion for reading. We want our children to be competent and independent readers and therefore treat reading as a highly valued skill; because of this, there are opportunities for our children to read throughout the school day.

We read to our children daily as part of our 'ten minute reading pledge'. The books we read to them are of a high quality and lead themselves to discussion about character, setting and events. All of our parents also agree to our 'ten minute reading pledge’ by signing our Home School Agreement each September. It is vital that children get to hear and talk about stories at home as well as at school.

The children have the opportunity to borrow banded books and a story or non-fiction book from our school library. Book banded books are for the children to have a go at reading with support from their grown-ups as there may be words that they are not yet able to read. The children are able to choose from their colour band. Our children are also encouraged to borrow a picture book or a non-fiction book that interests them. These are books to be shared at home and we would not expect our children to be able to read them independently, if at all. All of our children will have a reading record which is to be signed by an adult at home each time their child reads. There are also reading challenges that your child can complete and earn certificates for.

Phonics
We use the ‘Read Write Inc' scheme in school to teach phonics. The children have a phonics session every day for 20-30 minutes in Reception and 30 minutes in Years 1 and 2. During these lessons, the children learn how to say and read sounds and they then learn how to use those sounds to read and write words. Once the children know a good amount of sounds and can read words, they will also read books matched to their phonic ability. Once they have read a book at school, they will bring a copy of that book home to practise further.

The Read Write Inc website has useful videos to help support parents. We would particularly recommend watching this video which shows how to correctly say each sound.

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/#lg=1&slide=2

It also has information about reading with your child, how to blend sounds to read words and also the Year 1 Phonics Screening Test.

Useful resources, apps and websites to support reading and phonics at home are: 

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/find-out-more/parents/

www.oxfordowl.co.uk

http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/fun-ideas

www.phonicsplay.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/

http://mrthorne.com/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

Apps

http://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/ipad

http://mrthorne.com/apps/ipad-apps/