Reading Reminder

Ahead of parents’ evening I wanted to ensure that everyone had a good understanding of our reading and book change system. 

In line with best practice and government advice, the Read Write Inc scheme we follow advocates re-reading books 3 times at home and this is why books are changed on a Monday and Thursday.  

Research has shown that changing books daily is too quick for young readers and can leave gaps, they say rereading deepens familiarity and engagement whilst developing robust comprehension skills. The first reads are often focussed on phonics and blending and then by read 3, children are able to use their story voice to read the text to an audience. This confidence is lovely to share with you and they will be proud of what they can do.  

The focus for reading teaching at this stage is through phonics which is why we send home the phonic reading books (RWI story books and RWI book bag books). We do send other books home as well – stories the children enjoy to promote a love of reading and some of our old ‘book banded’ books. It is worth noting that the book bands are not in line with our phonic teaching and are not part of our reading assessment. The words and sounds that come up in these book bands are out of line with our teaching and children will come across new learning. RWI very much works on the principle of ‘practice what you know’. We do have a vast number of the book band texts and we know children enjoy the stories so children choose to take these home as well – to help with the love of reading and sharing other books with you. The skills of reading are different in book banded books and are not focussed on phonic decoding. We explained our reading policy and science of reading teaching during our base meeting in the second week of term, and it was great to have the time to talk to you about this during that meeting. The powerpoint can be found on our blog should you wish to refer back to it, if you were unable to attend. 

**We are in the process of re-assessing children so we will be able to share their next steps with you at parents evening.**