Teaching children to read
At Golcar JIN school we want children to:
Learn and enjoy language
Learn new words – vocabulary
Love reading, enjoy and experience rich language
Read and experience a range of different texts, books and poetry
Develop lots of knowledge about different places, phenomenon, emotions, events and people which will help us to learn to read
Develop an awareness of the ‘code’ and rules/patterns of English language
Learn from expert readers (teacher modelling)
Use reading to communicate and to learn new things
Build ‘mental models’ in our imagination and brain
Be imaginative
Experience and understand, empathy, emotions and knowledge of things beyond own or physically possible experience
Practise reading and become a fluent reader who can read for meaning and use intonation, voice emphasis and punctuation prompts to demonstrate understanding
Develop readers who have reading stamina and can read at length
Read often and gain ‘reading miles’ in order to develop confidence, efficiency and enjoyment
Learning to read - synthetic phonics
Children at our school use the Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) phonics scheme to learn how to read. This scheme gives teachers the structures to teach phonics in such a way that children build their knowledge efficiently and gain confidence quickly. The 44 ‘phonemes’ (sounds) of the English language are taught and practised relentlessly until the children can use these to build words. Very quickly they bring books home which they can read and enjoy with adults at home. At the end of Year 1 all children take the national phonics check. Here is a parent leaflet all about this check: Phonics screening check: information for parents. 40 words and nonsense words are read with an adult to find out if children can use their sounds to build words. Children have to read 32 of the words successfully to ‘pass’ the check. If children find this difficult, they have another opportunity to take the check at the end of Year 2. The main aim is to ensure all children are reading using phonics by the end of Key Stage 1/age 7. At our school the vast majority of children achieve this by the time they move to Key Stage 2. We support any child who finds this difficult and continue the teaching of phonics into year 3 when necessary.
Click here to find out what we teach in reading at our school: Golcar Goals for reading
Click here to find out which books we use in our English curriculum: Book spine Golcar 2025
Click here to find out which books are recommended for each year group 2025 50 recommended reads for Year groups
Reading at Home
We encourage all children to read as often as possible at home. If your child is yet to start school, we would ask that you read to them every day and enjoy the magic of books together. This preparation for school is crucial. If children read with grown ups every day before they start school, they already have many of the skills they need to learn to read and write.
Once in reception, children and families are encouraged to read their reading books as well as a range of other texts together to gain ‘reading miles’ which will help confidence and fluency. We work in partnership in the early years to embed reading habits and ensure all children succeed. We have a school library and children are encouraged to choose books which interest them and read these with support at home where needed. We use Oxford Owl online subscription to access reading books digitally. Parents and carers will get a login to use all the ELS resources at home and read as often as possible.
Read, read and read some more!
