ManorfieldReading at Manorfield
At Manorfield we stress the importance of creating that early love of reading and exposing children to reading in many ways to allow them to find their own excitement and enthusiasm for reading.
In Early Years and Key Stage 1 building a love of reading at an early age has a proven impact on a child’s learning, social skills, language development and engagement. It is not confined to reading specific books or even reading every night. The more you read with your child the more they learn from you. Strategies like using pictures to create stories and making up stories on your own will help inspire your child to explore many aspects of reading. The most important thing for children to learn is that reading is fun and can be a lifelong passion. Reading will also help them throughout their lives and that text comes in many different forms that anyone can access and enjoy.
In Key Stage 2 we stress the importance of reading for pleasure by recognising and awarding our champion readers, and inviting children to curate their own reading recommendation shelves to develop that book talk and excitement. We also offer opportunities for children to choose their own books for class reading corners.
We have recently appointed child reading ambassadors across the school to help promote a love of reading.
Here is an overview of how your child is being supported with their reading.
Phonics
At Manorfield all children from Nursery to Year 2 have a daily, interactive phonics session. We use the Tower Hamlets phonics syllabus to teach our phonics.
In Nursery, the children will begin Phonics once settled through singing and games linked to the phase 1 plan.
Please click here to see how you can support your child at home: https://www.manorfield.towerhamlets.sch.uk/Parents/Phonics-Supporting-at-Home/
To accompany our teaching of phonics we have introduced Bug Club phonetically plausible books and use these in our guided reading sessions for all children who are still accessing the phonics program.
Shared Reading
The focus of every shared reading session is about teaching the strategies of being a successful reader. It is taught whole class, with an age appropriate, carefully selected text (KS2), which the majority of the class will be able to access without additional support. Throughout the session there is a focus on reading fluency and phrasing, comprehension, grammar and reading strategies.
Guided Reading
The focus of every reading session is to provide opportunities for the children to practise reading strategies and skills, as well as fostering their excitement and enjoyment around reading. In years 1 – 5, children have 3 reading sessions per week, and all children have at least one teacher-led session per week. In year 6, the guided reading sessions include more targeted support. In reception guided reading starts when the children are able to access the beginning of phase 2 phonics and the sessions happen twice per week. During our guided reading sessions, the children are taught skills to help them develop a deeper understanding of what is being read. Key skills include: clarifying, predicting, asking questions, inference, making connections and summarising.
Class Texts
A carefully chosen, quality text is put at the heart of the teaching of English so children can engage with and enjoy an exciting story, exploring memorable characters, settings, themes and issues. Children will develop creative responses and ideas through the use of drama, storytelling and artwork. Children will write with confidence and for real purposes and audiences using the class text.
Class Story
We ask our teachers to read with all children in the school, every day. The class story is often linked to class topics or free choice from the children. Studies have shown that reading aloud to children, even if they are independent readers, supports them in developing a greater range of vocabulary, which is important when the children are reading on their own.
