Learning to Read in EYFS
It is acknowledged that parental involvement
in a child’s education is the single most
important factor in enhancing their
progress. The purpose of this leaflet is to
provide parents/carers with information
about how to help their child with reading.
It will outline how the children in Busy Bee
class are taught to read in school and how
parents/carers can continue to support their
child’s reading at home.
Each child selects a reading scheme book to
bring home. The book is colour-coded
according to the level the child is reading at.
Reading scheme books are structured to
support and develop children’s reading.
E-books are also available for each child
(Phonics Bug) to supplement their reading.
Your child also visits our library every week
and chooses a book to bring home to share
with you.
We are always happy to answer any questions
you may have and look forward a successful
partnership.
Visit our web site at:
www.stokegoldington.miltonkeynes.sch.uk
We value the partnership between home
and school and recognise the benefit it
provides for the children. In school your
child has access to a range of reading
material in the classrooms, the library and
the outside area. We would love to hear
about their reading experiences outside
of school.
How to Help Your Child
With Reading
Ouse Valley Partnership
North Crawley CE School & Stoke Goldington CE
First School
‘Sharing Excellence & Expertise’
Reading Is Enjoyable
You can help your child by offering a
supportive role in their reading journey.
By being enthusiastic and interested in
the books they bring home, you will be
showing that you value reading. Also by
reading any material yourself you will be
a positive role model.
We want your child to become a
confident and successful reader. The
reading scheme books are designed to
build confidence and to offer a feeling
of success. They contain colourful
pictures and limited text at the
beginning. The text is often repeated
and predictable. This helps children
feel a sense of achievement and
involvement, even though they might not
be able to recognise any words or
letters at this stage.
Talking about the book is very
important. Here are some suggestions
you could try:
- Linking the story with your
own experiences
- Predicting what will happen
next
- Asking questions to test their
understanding
- Noticing structure and styles
e.g. rhyme, speech bubbles
- Retell the main events of the
story.
Phonics
Reading is a Complex Process That
Involves a Range Of Strategies
To become more fluent at reading,
children need to recognise whole words.
Important words that cannot be
sounded out are sent home (on a
bookmark) for the children to learn by
sight. They are known as key words,
high-frequency words, common words
and tricky words.
Children often use four strategies to
help them to read.
Picture Clues
The first strategy your child may use
when learning to read is to use picture
clues. Reading the picture is a valid way
for an inexperienced reader to gain
confidence in the process of reading.
As they start to use other reading
strategies, they may still use the
picture to help them either guess a new
word or confirm that the word they
offered was correct. Pictures also help
bring the book to life and foster an
enjoyment for reading.
Busy Bees have a daily phonics lesson
using Phonics Play and Phonics Bug. They
learn letter sounds and alphabet names.
They can then use their knowledge of
sounds to decode new words by blending
them (sounding out) e.g. c-a-t=cat, s-ock=sock. This strategy should not be
overused. The aim is for the child to go
onto read the whole word automatically.
Whole Word Recognition
Meaning
As children develop as readers they
should listen to what they are reading.
They can then use their knowledge of
language to predict what word would
come next e.g. “A man lived in a …..”
They might guess “house” as that would
make sense (they could also check to
see if the word starts with h).