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Terrington St Clement Community School

A traditional school with traditional values where

we aspire, succeed and thrive

More ideas to do at home

What you can do at home

Often as parents, we become concerned with how and when our children are going to read and forget that reading, at any level, should be enjoyable and involves many interlinking skills to be successful. So, share books, magazines, comics, newspapers, football programmes, take away menus, shopping catalogues, anything with text that ignites your child’s interest to read. Simple things like knowing the text conveys a meaning, is read from left to right, is supported by illustrations, punctuation etc are all really beneficial aspects of reading.

At the start of their reception year your child will be given a reading diary, reading book and flashcards a-z. We work daily on reading through different activities so your child will be demonstrating their skills and receiving teaching and learning opportunities to develop these constantly. As well as this the children have daily focused phonics sessions.

We aim to hear your child read and change their reading book once a week. In between times we ask you to practise reading and flashcards. It is important that book bags and reading books are in school every day. Flashcards are changed once your child can read them on sight and without hesitation. Remember it is not a race each step needs time to embed and we frequently revisit previous learning to ensure this is happening.

Ways you can support your child at home

  • Encourage your child to pretend to 'read' a book before he or she can read words.
  • Plan a regular time for reading - perhaps when you get home from school or just before bed.
  • Read to your child every day – find 10 minutes and sit together with a book. Don’t worry if it’s the same book over and over again!
  • Practise reading their school reading book and flashcards but remember that this is a ‘tool’ for them to practise and demonstrate they have mastered skills. Real reading comes from sharing good quality children’s stories and books.
  • Look for books on topics that you know your child is interested in - maybe dragons, insects, cookery or a certain sport.
  • When you read to your child, make the experience interactive - ask questions about the story, the pictures and what they think of the characters. When they are beginning to learn their sounds (flashcards a-z) talk to them about the sounds they are learning – ask your child what things they can think of that starts with that sound.
  • Use every day real-life opportunities to read eg. road signs, menus, bus timetable, food labels.
  • Look for ways for your child to practise their reading/phonics eg. look for cvc words to read, find words with different digraphs – ee, oo, encourage them to join in any repetitive parts of the text.
  • Join the library – this gives you access to those good quality children’s stories and books. Even better it’s free to do and you are usually able to borrow up to 10 books.

If you are unsure about anything or have any questions please come and see us.

Resources to support phonics at home (please bear in mind, most of the resources are aimed at 5-7 year-olds):