You can make a huge difference! We believe that parents are the most important educators in a child’s life – even more important than their teachers – and it’s never too early to start reading together.
Even before they’re born, babies learn to recognise their parents’ voices. Reading to your baby from birth, even for just a few minutes a day, gives them the comfort of hearing your voice and increases their exposure to language.
As children start to learn to read at school, you can play an important role in helping to keep them interested in books. Find out what interests them, help them to find books that will be engaging and fun, and spend time reading the books they bring home from school together.
Make sure that your child is familiar with language and books so they can see how enjoyable reading is. Some of the things you can do include:
- reading aloud to your child, talking about the words and pictures, and sharing ideas about the book
- reading yourself – children who see adults reading, and enjoying it, are much more likely to want to read themselves
- surrounding your child with books – you don’t need hundreds of books at home, but go to the library or bookshop regularly to borrow books, spend time together, browse and make choices. In this way, reading becomes a habit.
Most importantly, talk to your child. Spend time with them, doing simple activities (like cooking and making things). As you talk about what you’re doing, you are helping them to learn new words. Later, when they see words written down, they’ve already heard them and know what they mean.
Click on the link to help your child to read with these useful tips from Oxford owls advice-for-parents reading to children at home
Enjoying Literacy with your child
- Sit somewhere quiet and comfortable.
- Before you read, look at the cover and the pictures and guess what the story is about.
- Helpers and children should take turns.
- Point to the words as you read them.
- Show where the sentences begin and end.
- Stop and guess what is going to happen next.
- Don’t rush them and only help when they are really stuck.
- Don’t correct every mistake and do praise for getting it right.
- Encourage them to read different sorts of books – information books as well as story books.
- Borrow books from the library.
- Don’t forget the key word lists – these are the everyday words they will need to read
Writing and Spelling
- Enter the Rotary Club Young Writers competition. Click on the link for more information Young writer letter
- Help your child to learn the spellings he/she brings home from school.
- Make sure they have paper and pencils or a little book to use.
- Encourage your child to write at home – stories, cards, letters and postcards from holidays.
- Help children to write in sentences with capital letters and full stops.
Speaking and Listening
- Listening carefully to instructions you give them.
- Listening to audio stories- you can get these from the library.
- Listening to you reading a bedtime story
- Holding a conversation
- Speaking clearly
Don’t forget – Reading should be fun!
All pupils read for the first twenty minutes of the day three days a week. We are supported in this initiative by parents, governors and helpers. All pupils are encouraged to take their reading folders home with their record book. We ask parents to read with their child and add comments in the record book
Key Stage 1
Our aim is to develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read and discussion of vocabulary and understanding.
Pupils read mostly on an individual basis but some are competent enough to read in groups in Year 1 and Year 2.
Schemes used in Key Stage 1
Oxford Reading Tree
Key Stage 2
Our aim is to develop positive attitudes to reading as well as understanding of what they read so that they are able to read independently. Readers in Key Stage 2 have access to the reading schemes used in KS1 but also have a choice of reading material. Pupils engage in guided reading sessions where the teacher or helper works with the pupils asking them questions about the book using inference and deduction, talking about characters, plot, vocabulary and punctuation. They discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader, in fiction and non- fiction texts.
Books we use to encourage reluctant readers are:
Wolf Hill Badger Reading Scheme
Rapid Readers Rapid Phonics