Reading at Home
Key Stage 1
All Children will bring home a library books. This can be changed as frequently as children wish by visiting the class library. Children can also visit the school library during break times with a Reading Ambassador who will support them by offering recommendations and suggestions. They are also available to read to them or with them.
Library Books
Children will be bringing home a book from either their class library or the school library. Staff and Reading Ambassadors will offer recommendations to them but ultimately it will be up to them which book they choose to bring home. At times, children may choose to bring home a book which you might think appears to be too easy or too hard; however, in order to encourage a love of reading we will not be discouraging them from reading a slightly easier book, or returning to an old favourite. Equally, if a book is challenging for them, as long as staff feel the subject matter is appropriate for their age, we will allow them to loan the book and just ask that an experienced reader reads it to them. The purpose of these books is to help promote a love of reading! If they don't like a book and have persevered, then swap it!
Decodeable Readers
These books are matched to the Sounds-Write phonics programme. They are linked to the children's learning in their Phonics lessons. However, the books that children will be bringing home will cover learning that children have already done - deliberately so! In Phonics lessons, children are having to learn the correspondences between the sounds of the English language and the spellings which represent them, as well as practising the skills of segmenting, blending and manipulating sounds. Furthermore, they are also learning that sounds can be represented by 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters, that the same sound can be spelled in more than one way and that a spelling can represent more than one sound! There is a lot of information to take on board! Therefore, reading a book containing this brand new learning is a challenge! Children will access challenging books but will do so in class under the guidance of their teacher. The home reader books will contain prior learning so that they can keep practising their reading skills and embedding their knowledge of the alphabetic code. This will help their reading to become automatic which in turn will develop their fluency and comprehension.
Bridging Books (Oxford Reading Tree)
Once children are confident with the conceptual understanding, skills and alphabetic code, we send them home with a 'Bridging Book', this may be in addition to their decodeable book or instead of. Bridging Books help children to continue to apply their phonics knowledge and skills whilst also developing their reading stamina, developing their knowledge of different authors, exposing them to a range of texts and, ultimately, helping them take steps towards being independent, confidence readers who love it!
Eventually, as children become more proficient with their reading, they will no longer need phonics and bridging books.
Key Stage 2
All Children will bring home a school reader book and a library book.
School Reader
Each child will select a book from the Key Stage 2 landing. The books on the landing are colour coded according to their complexity. Teachers ensure that children know the colour of the book they should be choosing and, in conjunction with teaching assistants, will listen to children read to check the book is pitched appropriately. When reading at home, children should start with their school reader book as this book will help develop them the most as readers. We know that children like to read independently but please ensure that as well as this, children are reading their school reader aloud and are chatting with you about what is happening. Please then record in reading diaries to show you have heard them read. Children should use their reading diaries to keep a log of the pages they have read. We would expect that children will take no longer than two weeks to read a book. The books are lengthy but if children are reading daily this will be achievable as the texts are pitched appropriately.
Library Book
Children will be bringing home a book from either their class library or the school library. They will be guided by a member of staff who will offer recommendations to them but ultimately it will be up to them which book they choose to bring home. At times, children may choose to bring home a book which you might think appears to be too easy or too hard; however, in order to encourage a love of reading we will not be discouraging them from reading a slightly easier book, or returning to an old favourite. Equally, if a book is challenging for them, as long as staff feel the subject matter is appropriate for their age, we will allow them to loan the book and just ask that an experienced reader reads it to them. The purpose of these books is to help promote a love of reading! If they don't like a book and have persevered, then swap it!
Some Children will bring home a Decodeable Book and, or Bridging Book.
Decodeable Readers
These books are matched to the Sounds-Write phonics programme. They are linked to the children's learning in their Phonics lessons. However, the books that children will be bringing home will cover learning that children have already done - deliberately so! In Phonics lessons, children are having to learn the correspondences between the sounds of the English language and the spellings which represent them, as well as practising the skills of segmenting, blending and manipulating sounds. Furthermore, they are also learning that sounds can be represented by 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters, that the same sound can be spelled in more than one way and that a spelling can represent more than one sound! There is a lot of information to take on board! Therefore, reading a book containing this brand new learning is a challenge! Children will access challenging books but will do so in class under the guidance of their teacher. The home reader books will contain prior learning so that they can keep practising their reading skills and embedding their knowledge of the alphabetic code. This will help their reading to become automatic which in turn will develop their fluency and comprehension.
Bridging Books (Oxford Reading Tree or Little Gems)
Once children are confident with the conceptual understanding, skills and alphabetic code, we send them home with a 'Bridging Book', this may be in addition to their decodeable book or instead of. Bridging Books help children to continue to apply their phonics knowledge and skills whilst also developing their reading stamina, developing their knowledge of different authors, exposing them to a range of texts and, ultimately, helping them take steps towards being independent, confidence readers who love it!
Eventually, as children become more proficient with their reading, they will no longer need phonics and bridging books.
Reading at Home - What you can do!
If you were unable to attend the reading workshops, please see the PowerPoint from the sessions and get in touch if you have any questions.
Reading at Home
Sounds-Write have a course designed for parents/carers. It is called 'Help Your Child to Read and Write'. More information can be found here:
https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/
Book Trust have great guides full of useful tips about reading with your child at home. They can be found here:
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/tips-and-advice/reading-tips/
At The Ridge, we follow the research from The Open University's Reading for Pleasure Pedagogies. They have some fantastic resources aimed at families. You can find them here:
https://ourfp.org/supporting-rah/book-chat-reading-with-your-child/
