Reading at Nettleworth Infant and Nursery School

Here at Nettleworth, we believe that reading, and children becoming readers, are important factors towards every child's success in school and their future.

We also know reading can be a fun and an imaginative activity for children, which opens doors to all kinds of new worlds for them. Children becoming readers, reading for purpose and pleasure, is part of the Nettleworth ethos and underpins our whole school curriculum.

Across school we expect children to be reading at least three times a week at home, little and often where possible. In school, we provide a variety of reading opportunities in all areas of their learning right across the curriculum.

Guided reading lessons are a fundamental part of our weekly timetable. These sessions give us the time to focus on the skills needed to read and comprehend.

Reading Comprehension

There are two significant parts to a child’s development in reading: decoding the words & understanding what they have read. 

To help your child decode to read the words, children are given daily phonics sessions. See the Phonics page on our website for further information on how we teach phonics at Nettleworth and ways in which you can support your child at home.

To support children in their development to understand the words, it is important to ensure children are predicting what might happen, reflecting on what has happened and discussing key parts of the text. These also form the focus of our guided reading and reading sessions in school. You can support your child(ren) at home too. 

Encouraging Reading for Pleasure

Reading for pleasure is a big part of reading at Nettleworth. We share stories daily and often re-read familiar stories just for pleasure.

We do understand that sometimes children may be reluctant to read at home, therefore to help overcome this, we have some top tips to help engage readers and create a positive reading atmosphere at home.

• Encourage your child to read to their pets if possible, sometimes readers may be reluctant as they are self-conscious of their reading ability, sometimes reading to an animal who is not going to "judge" them can help to build their confidence. 
• Creating a quiet, comfortable reading space. Giving children a special area or special time of day, maybe with soft lighting, all to themselves helps to make reading fun and enjoyable. 
• Encourage reading in a variety of settings. Who doesn't love to relax in the park or on the beach with a good book? 
• You could introduce a reading rewards chart at home, celebrate when your child is reading and work towards a goal or reward.