Systematic Synthetic Phonics
Phonics is taught right from the start in EYFS to enable our children to build those reading skills as soon as they come into school. Our phonics sessions are delivered through whole class teaching, enabling all children to have exposure to the sounds. Those who need additional phonics support have this through catch-up intervention.
We use Essential Letters & Sounds as our DfE accredited phonics programme.
To support parents, we offer a workshop where we share the principles of teaching phonics and the importance of pure sounds, and give advice on how to read with children at home. Examples of pure sound pronunciation can be found using the following link: Essential Letters and Sounds – Oxford Owl
Reading Scheme Books
1:1 & Independent Reading To Gain Fluency
Our independent reading books are from the Oxford Tree Reading Scheme, and provide pupils with opportunities to engage with both fiction, poetry and non-fiction materials.
Whilst children are in the first years of school, independent reading books are carefully chosen by teachers to enable the pupils to practise their reading and gain automaticity and fluency when reading. Re-reading is encouraged, as this supports our children’s familiarity with the text and develops comprehension skills.
Links below help parents to support their child when reading at home:
Supporting your child with reading at home (KS1)
Supporting your child with reading at home (KS2)
Class Readers – Our Whole Class Reading Book
An end of day story is a wonderful thing, and we cherish this moment at Preston Hedges.
To ensure that our children gain an exposure to a range of genres and styles, we have carefully thought out and planned our class readers across the school. These books are often referenced in English sessions, enabling children to use the context of the book to write in different styles and for differing audiences.
Reading For Pleasure
Our red library bus is a weekly stop for all of our children across school, where they can take out a reading for pleasure book. We have a strong reward system in place that encourages our children to read regularly, and we are thrilled that all of our children enjoy the process of working toward the rewards. They particularly enjoy gaining their reading badges and spending their tokens at the Reading Vending Machine.
Building Comprehension
Building strong analysis and comprehension skills are incedibly important, and our teachers always ensure that they build talk around reading into their sessions. In Key Stage Two, our pupils have focused deep analysis sessions based around their class reader or a high quality extract or poem to use and apply retrieval and inference skills and engage in a deeper textual understanding.
Sharing Experiences
Red Phone Box Book Swap: Our phone box is available for all members of our school community to access at any time they see fit. We have a section for toddlers, so our pupils’ siblings can be equally involved with reading at school.
Friday Readers: Our EYFS & KS1 families are invited in at 2.45pm on a Friday afternoon to share a book with their child. Younger siblings are very welcome!
