Reading at Reynalds Cross School
Reading at Reynalds Cross school is an integral part of Communication across the school. It is mainly included in the school curriculum area of ‘My Communication’ but also used discreetly during the school day. We recognise that it is important to create opportunities for our pupils to communicate in the best they can and reading can be one of the bridges to their communication. We want our pupils to be able to
- engage in a range of reading materials
- have the opportunity to develop a love for reading
- develop their reading skills through all subjects taught
- develop functional reading skills to use for life after school
- use reading as part of their communication
Phonics at Reynalds Cross School
One way we have created the opportunity for our pupils to learn to read is through following the Bug Club Reading Programme. There are 44 sounds in the English Language which we put together to form words.
This programme follows an approach of learning phonemes and applying this to skills such as blending. Our pupils are taught to listen and build up their attention to sounds in general, then letter sounds, followed by matching the sounds to letter and finally how to use the letter sounds for reading and spelling. The programme is the product of extensive research on the best way to teach children how to read.
All the books in Bug Club Phonics have been finely-levelled to ensure that all children can read books at exactly the right level for them. The books can be accessed online, as well as the printed books and personalised for each child.
Each child has a unique homepage and can log into it by following these steps:
- Go to www.activelearnprimary.co.uk
- Enter the login details.
- Your child’s homepage will appear.
Please contact the school office if you do not have the login details.
We allocate books to your child according to their reading levels. These books will appear in the ‘My Stuff’ area of their personal homepage.
The eBooks have three main additional features to help your child. Find them in the ‘Independent’ section of ‘My Stuff’.
- Phoneme pronunciation guide: click on the bug icon to hear some of the phonemes (sounds) in the book.
- Read to me: after your child has had a go at reading the book, you can click on this to hear the text read out loud e.g. to help your child with giving expression.
- Quiz question: click on the second bug icon within the book to answer a question designed to reinforce your child’s learning. Their teacher will receive information about attempted questions.
When your child has finished the book, clicked on the phoneme pronunciation guide and attempted the quiz question, he or she will earn ‘ActiveLearn Coins’. When your child has finished a book, it will move to ‘My Library’. Children can read these books again if they want to, or they can choose new books from ‘My Stuff’.