Reading at home

Reading is a vital skill and we encourage parents to join in the excitement of their children learning to read. We recommend reading little and often and setting aside a set time each day to complete this. Our expectation is for children to read at home a minimum of three times a week. This may be their class book, a book from home, a comic book, annual, magazine etc.

We encourage children to re-read a text in order to develop fluency and understanding. Research has shown that re-reading a favourite book can actually boost vocabulary by up to 40% and that this works best when the book is read aloud.

Reading to your child

Please continue to read to your child throughout their time at Primary school. Even older children benefit from having either a familiar, favourite story read again, or sharing something which is more challenging than they would read themselves.

Ways to help your child enjoy a book

• Have a regular time for reading – perhaps when you get home from school or just before bed.
• Begin with a book that your child has chosen. Children are more likely to read something that interests them.
• Ensure that children’s books are easy to access in different rooms around your house.
• Encourage your child to pretend to ‘read’ a book before he or she can read words.
• Visit the library as often as possible – take out CDs and DVDs as well as books.
• Look for books on topics that you know your child is interested in – football, princesses, cars etc.
• You may wish to use Audiobooks. Apps such as Audible are great and offer a huge amount of children’s books.
• Create opportunities to read and write beyond the pages of the book.
• On car, bus, train journeys or while running errands, play word games that build language skills.
• Watch some of the story telling videos on Youtube – there are many available for all age ranges. However, please do watch them right through first to check they are suitable, and as part of online safety.

Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader is a computer programme that helps our school to manage and monitor children’s independent reading.
Children using AR choose their own book from a range of thousands of published titles.  AR helps children to choose books at an appropriate readability level that are challenging without being frustrating so that your child can experience success.

Children will complete a Star Test every other term which will provide them with a ZPD range of books to choose from. Each time a child completes their Accelerated Reader book, they will be given the opportunity to take a quiz on either an iPad, laptop or kindle, to check their understanding of what they have read. Children are awarded points for correct answers. Each term, children are set a target of points to try and reach.

To access Accelerated Reader Home Connect please   click here  and track your child’s reading progress from home. Children use this assessment system as they  develop into KS1. Please speak to your child’s teacher for further information.

Reading rewards

Each term, all children who meet their Accelerated Reader target are placed into a prize draw. One winner per community is drawn out and taken on a trip to Waterstones at Bluewater, where they will be able to select a book of their choice.

As well as this, each day a child reads at home, they are provided with a raffle ticket in class the following school day. At the end of each term, a winner is drawn out per class. These winners are then able to select a brand-new book to take home from our Reading Rewards bookshelf.