Education Scotland has published a new resource, which has been created alongside educators across Scotland, to provide professional support to practitioners who teach young children in those very early steps towards becoming a reader.

Learning to read in the Early Years: A professional support overview draws upon a range of international research and guidance to support practitioners to interpret Scotland’s curriculum guidance and make research-informed decisions for learning and teaching.

The resource outlines the range of ways that educators can build a holistic knowledge of each child as a reader in order to effectively support their reading journey, and is for all educators who support children and young people to learn to read, in particular those working in primary schools and Early Learning and Childcare settings.

It is the first part of a broader suite of professional learning resources to be published in the coming months.

Ollie Bray, Strategic Director at Education Scotland, said: 'We’re delighted to publish this resource which aims to help educators to put learners at the centre of early reading experiences. Teaching early reading is a stage of the learning journey which educators rightly feel very passionate about. The window of time from early learning and childcare and through the beginning stages of primary school is the best opportunity that we have to support children as they make the connections between the marks on a page and the words, sentences, stories and the range of texts they will encounter in school and in life.

'Practitioners need to be able to draw upon and apply a broad professional knowledge of early reading in order to make teaching decisions which meet the needs of all children. This includes considering the effective implementation of teaching phonics as part of an overall approach to teaching reading. This resource can be used as an at-a glance guide, a tool for self-evaluation of professional knowledge or can be used as part of the overall suite of resources to support professional learning.'

Education Scotland will be running an in-person professional learning event for primary teachers and early years practitioners in Perth on Tuesday 26 March where they can find out more about the resource, engage in professional dialogue around its content and explore some of the inter-connected key areas. There will also be an on-line session on Thursday 9 May.