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Big benefits for
little people

Reading Bees is an enhanced learning program for 3 to 9-year-olds who want a head start on school or need extra help learning to read and spell.

At Reading Bees, your child will:

  • Learn to read, write and spell
  • Develop social skills
  • Develop strong listening skills
  • Develop basic maths concepts
  • Reduce anxiety around starting school
  • Gain confidence & independence
  • Understand how to โ€˜take turnsโ€™
  • Make new friends
  • Be encouraged to 'have a go'
  • Have a whole lot of fun!

Our qualified educators follow an evidence-based literacy program proven as the most successful way for children to master reading and spelling from an early age.

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READING BEES

FAQs

Reading Bees is a unique program that continues to develop based on the needs of our most important customers - the children. Reading Bees appeals to a wide community of children and their individual needs, whether it be building on their knowledge, providing a safe and nurturing learning environment, or offering structure so that too many choices don't make your child anxious.

Reading Bees provides a service to the community that no one else does. You could say we slot between kinder and primary school. We provide a service to children in our local community and the wider community. We have families that travel for over an hour one way to come to Reading Bees each week.

Our vision is to help children to become the best version of themselves. We respect that children develop at their own pace and empathise with the children according to their unique needs and character.

โ€˜Children are more likely to cope with the challenges of school when they are self-reliant and confident; are willing to try new things, can listen to and follow instructions, can take care of their own belongings, can interact confidently and co-operatively with other children and adults, and can cope with inevitable frustrationsโ€™ (Associate Professor Kay Margetts - Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education).

Research has proven that 'adjustment to school is also supported when children have basic literacy and numeracy skills and the support of sensitive adults' (Associate Professor Kay Margetts - Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Teacher Education).

At Reading Bees, we focus on phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge and basic mathematical concepts through play. The program is developed from evidence-based literacy and numeracy research.

Children start reading real stories once they know the first 8 โ€˜soundsโ€™. The sounds and letters are introduced in an order that makes it easy for children to learn. The emphasis is on โ€˜decodingโ€™ (sounding out) and a few โ€˜heart wordsโ€™ (high-frequency words children need to know 'by heart' as they cannot decode them at this stage). This is all taught in a fun and engaging way.

Starting school with confidence is really important. The demands, both socially and academically, are huge in the first year of school.

Learning to read is not easy or natural. It is a complex process. Oral language and pre-literacy, phonological awareness skills support early reading and writing development. Skilled readers have good decoding skills (word recognition); understand what they read (comprehension), and read with fluency (Maureen Pollard - Little Learners Love Literacy).

A childโ€™s level of phonological awareness (ability to identify sounds and sound patterns in language) is an important predictor of their later reading development (Maureen Pollard - Little Learners Love Literacy).

If your child begins school knowing something about sounds, reading and writing, it can make a significant difference to how they feel as a learner and how easily they settle into that new school routine and expectations.

Not at all. We do not teach the children everything they will learn in Prep. We help the children develop the skills that will assist them with their transition into school.

The awareness of sounds and their link to speech and letters is an important part of learning to read. In fact, the awareness of sounds is a prerequisite skill before children can learn to associate sounds withย letters.Itย is sometimes assumed that because children are immersed in a sound-rich environment, they develop phonemic awareness naturally. The truth is that the speaker and listener are not actually attending to individual sounds; the focus is on communication - speaking and listening (Maureen Pollard - Literacy Consultant).

At Reading Bees, we use the Little Learners Love Literacy program for the literacy component of our lessons. The program is developed from evidence-based literacy research that emphasises the importance of explicit teaching, along with a focus on:

  • Phonemic awareness
  • Phonics
  • Vocabulary
  • Fluency
  • Comprehension

It also includes teaching handwriting skills as an integral part of literacy learning.

ABSOLUTELY! Children with speech and language delays often have difficulty with literacy skills as well. Children who have difficulty pronouncing or understanding certain speech sounds may also have difficulty with reading and writing those sounds. This can lead to trouble decoding and sounding out words.

Children with language delays may not fully understand all parts of language, such as grammar, syntax, vocabulary, etc. This can lead to problems understanding text or putting oneโ€™s ideas into writing in a logical manner.

Before children are ready to read, write, and spell, they develop phonological awareness skills. These skills help them understand how words are made up of sounds and that sounds are represented by letters. These skills are essential for reading and are often impaired in children with speech disorders, especially phonological disorders.

At Reading Bees, we help your child develop phonological awareness skills by incorporating the following in their play-based activities....

  • Rhyming
  • Alliteration (same beginning sounds)
  • Letter-sound correspondences
  • Manipulating sounds in words
  • Identifying sounds at the beginning, middle and end of words.

With a maximum class size of 12 children, led by a dedicated educator plus an assistant, your child gets the personal attention they need and deserve.

Definitely! We are very passionate about helping children learn to read and believe we have the tools to help them.

'Approximately one student in every 10 in our primary schools experience some form of learning challenge within their educational setting, with three to five percent having a Specific Learning Disorder such as Dyslexia' (Kristin Anthian - LDA Consultant).

โ€œThese students require early identification and appropriate intervention using a systematic, explicit and cumulative approach to reading and spelling instruction, with high intensity and frequency. The Little Learners Love Literacy phonics program provides a comprehensive scope and sequence for teaching literacy in the early years. It can be equally effective in supporting students experiencing learning difficulties with its systematic and carefully sequenced methodologyโ€ย (Kristin Anthian - LDA Consultant).

Ourย Pre-Kinderย classes have a maximum of 10 children with two educators.

The maximum number of children in theย Kinder & Kinder Plusย classes is 12, with two educators.

Our primary class numbers are much smallerโ€”a maximum of 5 children per class with one educator.

The program runs for 38 weeks per year, commencing in February and running during school terms only. Although we recommend commencing at the beginning of the program, it is never too late to join.

Private tutoring is available for children from Foundation/Prep to Year 6.Please call 0412 268 636 to discuss.

We keep things simple with an easy-to-use Reading Bees app.

The Reading Bees app is theย only wayย to sign up and enrol your child in our enhanced learning program; Pre-Kinder, Kinder and Primary.

App | Reading Bees

OUR STUDIOS

Find Us

We have seven Reading Bees locations across Melbourne. Phone us on 0412 268 636, or email hello@readingbees.com.au.

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