At Griffydam we intend for all of our children to build the strongest foundations for a lifelong love of reading. We value reading as a tool for wellbeing and as a stimulus for the imagination and understand that, as educators, our role is to embed an appreciation for reading across the curriculum as well as to rigorously teach the fundamentals of comprehension and decoding.
Phonics is a system that links letters to sounds. It is the recommended way to teach children how to read in schools in England.
Across Key Stage One and EYFS, we use a resource for our phonics teaching called 'Anima Phonics'.
It is based within the 'Letters and Sounds' , which is a government document and a link to the DfE guidace is available here. However, it uses a slightly different teaching progression, which has been proven to support children in gaining reading skills.
Your child will have a phonics lesson each day in Reception and Year One. The sessions are approximately 20 minutes long. You might be surprised at the fast pace in which the new sounds are introduced but this is to enable children to begin to read words quickly.
There are lots of websites that have wonderful phonics activities that your child can access. We will send home activities and games to help as well.
Helping my EYFS child with phonics- Phase One
Helping my EYFS child with phonics- Phase Two
Helping my EYFS child with phonics- Phase Three
Helping my EYFS child with phonics- Phase Four
Helping my EYFS child with phonics- Phase Five
Helping my EYFS child with phonics- Phase Six
At Griffydam Primary School, we teach children to read through;
· Quality Literacy lessons
· Independent reading (or home reading) activities
· Guided reading session.
Children are allocated a reading book in Reception and Class 2, using books which have been ‘banded’, according to their level of challenge.
We aim to read with your child during each week and volunteers also come in to listen to children read across the school. In order to ensure that your child has a range of texts to stimulate and challenge them, we also have a well stocked lending library that your child can access. Your child will have a weekly opportunity to visit the main or class library and change their book.
In Key Stage Two, we expect that all children are reading a book of their choice. This choice is guided by the class teacher and, for those who are fluent, we expect all children to read at home independently most evenings. We have worked hard to ensure that our class libraries are stocked with the highest quality fiction to enable our children to grow into lifelong readers.
There is a weekly opportunity to explore the wide range of wonderful fiction we have in school and choose a reading book as well as frequent opportunities to read and review brand new novels.
Guided Reading is a half hour daily session which enables the class teacher to talk about a text in depth with a small group (or occasionally the whole class). We generally set up a ‘carousel’ of activities to enable children to rehearse key reading skills independently and enable the class teacher and teaching assistant to focus on a small group each day.
If you would like further information about reading, please come and talk to one of us!
