Reading in Early Years The Teaching Of Reading In The EYFS In this phase, reading is taught as an integral part of the literacy cycle. This means that your child will be taught an explicit reading skill, for example using pictures to give us information or prediction, every three weeks. During this time, they will be heard read by the teacher and teaching assistant and their reading ability assessed to identify their next steps and areas for development. This reading may be based upon extracts from texts and will include both fiction and non-fiction texts. In addition to this, all children in Nursery and Reception take part in daily phonics sessions of 20 minutes. Reading is also embedded within our curriculum and your child will be exposed to a wide range of texts, from a wide range of genres. If children find reading challenging, they may be heard reading more regularly.
Developing A Love Of Reading In Early Years, we strongly believe that every child is a reader and that every child should be encouraged to develop a love for reading. As teachers, we model this love for reading through the sharing of texts with our classes, both in literacy lessons and more widely. Stories are shared at the end of the day and longer texts may be shared over a term. Reading Buddies in Reception support children in developing relationships whilst supporting them with their reading and development on phonic knowledge. Children are also encouraged to bring in a text that they find exciting to share with their class. In addition, we have created a recommended reading list and encourage the children to select books to read, at home and school, from this list. This list is available to view on the school website. At school, we have an extensive selection of fiction and non-fiction books which the children are very welcome to borrow.
Reading At Home All children within Early Years will take home a class library book and within Reception, children will also take home a banded book from the school’s reading scheme. Your child is encouraged to read at home with an adult frequently – little and often is best– and we love to see pictures sent through Dojo of children really enjoying reading. When sharing books, you could consider discussing, for example, what the story is about, how a character might be feeling, who the characters are and what might happen next in the story; these discussions will help to develop your child’s comprehension skills. If your child has really enjoyed a book, please share this with us as we are always looking for recommendations.