Home Reading

At St. Mary’s Primary School we aim to foster a love of reading and ensure your child learns to read well. Numerous research projects have found that the more a child reads the better reader they will be throughout life. As quoted in the Independent:

'Reading is like swimming. Getting a 10 metre swimming certificate is not the end of your swimming career. It is the beginning. Once you can propel yourself forward, you can build up stamina and enjoy the water. You could swim the Channel or participate in the Olympics. But not if you hardly ever go in the water!'

To become a good reader, children need to read regularly. Any reading is a positive experience, especially when it is exciting and has purpose. Your child will always have the chance to receive a library book from school and the local library is also a good resource for you to use with your child. You can model good reading to your child by talking about what and why you read yourself, so that they can appreciate reading as a lifelong skill, as well as taking it in turns to read a sentence, page or paragraph.

Reading an enjoyable book allows your child to practise reading with expression, at a conversational pace and with enjoyment. Reading fluently and smoothly is essential as it makes the meaning of the text much clearer and this helps children understand what they are reading. At the end of Key Stage Two in Year 6, your child will sit the National Standard Tests (SATs) which solely test comprehension skills, not the word reading, but the ability to understand and navigate books. 

There are many genres of reading that the children will be exposed to. These include: fiction, information books, poetry, plays, autobiographies, biographies, classic novels, mysteries, short stories and fables.

The reading record books are an important record for all of us. Whenever you hear your child read at home please make a record of this in the books. This doesn’t just have to be your child’s school book but can be anything of their choice from an online game review to an appropriate newspaper article. We encourage all children to read each and every day.

Home Reading Advice:

Below are a few suggestions for ways in which you can support your child's reading development at home:

• Talk about the image/pictures and discuss what they notice and how this relates to the text. There are amazing picture books for all ages.

• Encourage your child to listen to themselves reading and monitor how accurate it sounds and whether it makes sense (record on a phone!).

• Share a story by reading alternate lines, paragraphs or pages with your child. This modelling is vital to their development.

• Draw your child’s attention to features of the text such as paragraphs, chapters and punctuation marks.

• Practise reading and spelling some words that appear in the text. You can do this through simple games, such as making words with magnetic letters or challenging them to create as many words as they can from another word, i.e. “How many words can you make from elephant?”

• Check your child understands the meaning of new words. We are aware that sometimes young readers read quite complex words easily but without understanding their meaning.

• Discuss any exciting words that the author has used and why this helps to make the text more interesting.

• Encourage your child to attempt to work out any tricky or unknown words and support them in using strategies such as self-correction.

• Ask your child if they can predict what the book will be about as they look at the cover and title. As they read, ask them if they can predict what might happen next.

• When you have completed a book, ask your child what they have enjoyed about the text and share your own views.

We hope you will find this information helpful. Please do not hesitate to ask your child’s teacher if you have any queries.

Kind regards

Mr. J. Southall

English Lead