Our school vision at St Joseph’s Catholic Infant school is to develop eloquent and truthful learners who are ambitious and capable. Eloquent in what they say of themselves and in the relations between people and the world. To be eloquent in our Foundation Phase setting, children must learn to speak with confidence and then build on these skills to develop reading and writing skills.
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” – Walt Disney
Collaboration with parents to develop ambitious, capable learners
During lockdown some children have flown with reading development, however, many for lots of different reasons have plateaued or regressed.
We would like all parents to work with us to help improve every child’s reading skills.
How?
Step 1: Be consistent. Read daily with your child 10- 15 mins
Step 2: Practise reading the Oxford Reading Scheme daily. It is always good to ‘walk ‘ through the book before reading, looking at pictures on the cover, and looking through the book together. Go over any tricky words. Set children up to achieve.
- Read the story to your child, pointing under the words as you read
- Re-read the story with your child, encouraging them to join in with repeated patterns
- Give them lots of praise
- Write in the Reading Record – share how the session went with your child’s teacher.
- PLEASE remember to send book and reading record back on the designated day. We need to set them aside 48 hours before using.
Step 3: Log on to Oxford Reading Buddies for short burst 3 times a week. This is a fantastic resource which tracking shows is being underused. Logon codes will be resent later this week.
Step 4: Use flash cards sent home as a home learning tool. Make the activity fun. Keep it short, make it a game. Make additional flash cards if your child finds a word tricky. Help them recognise common words by sight. Make sure they know the names of the main characters.
Step 5: Use fun resources that surround us in a language rich world. Teach them songs and nursery rhymes; clap rhythms of the words, help them to think of another word that begins with…
Make use of online resources such as:
· BBC Bitesize has a good section on ‘Top tips to support your child’s reading at home’ which may be of help with strategies.
· readingrockets.org has ideas for family reading activities.
· The Pori Drwy Stori website has lots of activities/ideas for families (https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/programmes-and-campaigns/poridrwystori/
· The Literacy Trust also has information/support for parents (https://literacytrust.org.uk/)
