Your child will bring home two reading books each week.

One is for your child to read to you. It has been carefully chosen so that they can work out all the words. This book should allow your child to read fluently with very little help. This book is matched to our phonics scheme that is taught daily.

The second book will be a ‘reading for pleasure’ book – a book to enjoy together. It may have words in it that your child may not be able to read yet. It is for you to read to your child and talk about together.

We ask that parents listen to and discuss their child’s reading books with them three to four times a week for roughly ten minutes at a time. Parents are also expected to record these reading sessions in their child’s Reading Record. By the end of the week we expect the children to be reading their phonics matched book (and hopefully the reading for pleasure book too) fluently and with ease. We aim to change books once a week – we recognise this means that you may hear the same text many times during a week but re-reading a book really helps develop children’s reading fluency and confidence.

Top tips for reading at home…

If you can find the time beforehand, read the read-aloud book to yourself first, so you can think about how you’re going to read it to your child.

On the first reading:
• Make reading aloud feel like a treat. Make it a special quiet time and cuddle up so you can both see the book.
• Show curiosity about what you’re going to read: ‘This book looks interesting. It’s about an angry child. I wonder how angry he gets…’
• Read through the whole story the first time without stopping too much. Let the story weave its own magic.
• Read with enjoyment. If you’re not enjoying it, your child won’t. Read favourite stories over and over again.
On later readings:
• Let your child pause, think about and comment on the pictures.
• If you think your child did not understand something, try to explain: ‘Oh! I think what’s happening here is that…’
• Chat about the story and pictures: ‘I wonder why she did that?’; ‘Oh no, I hope she’s not going to…’; ‘I wouldn’t have done that, would you?’
• Link the stories to your own family experiences: ‘This reminds me of when …’
• Link stories to others that your child knows: ‘Ah! Do you remember the dragon in ….? Do you remember what happened to him?’
• Encourage your child to join in with the bits they know.

If you have any further questions about reading at home please just ask.

Rainbow Reading Scheme

We try to encourage reading at home, and offer our Rainbow Reading Scheme.

 This applies to all children in school and reminds them how important reading at home is for their learning. Here’s how it works:

* Each time your child reads at home, we need you to sign their reading record diary. Reading at home can be a book, comic, menu, sign, recipe, shopping list....the list is endless!

* We will collect your child’s diary once a week and record how many times they have read at home.

* Your child will receive a special mention in the All Stars assembly, a certificate and a small prize for every 25 reads at home. These will match the colours of the rainbow. 25 reads they will get their red certificate and prize, for 50 reads this will be orange, then yellow and so on.

* When they have collected all colours of the rainbow they will receive their special GOLD certificate and prize from the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Please remember that by hearing your child read at home 3 times a week you will be improving their reading ability - you can make a BIG difference.