Home Reading Expectations

Learning to Read

Teaching our children to read and write independently will provide them with the key skills they need to access the rest of the curriculum as well as impact massively on their self-esteem and future life chances.

Being able to decode a text alone is not enough. Children need to understand what they are reading and need to be taught key comprehension skills from an early age. This is done through comprehension activities linked to the books they are reading. We know that good readers question, check and engage with their own understanding and these are some of the skills we seek to develop. Decoding and comprehension need to be taught at the same time.

Our curriculum has a strong emphasis on learning and acquiring new vocabulary. Children need to know what words mean in order to understand what they have read. Texts are chosen carefully with this in mind so that children are exposed to a rich and wide vocabulary.

Reading at home and reading for pleasure

Most importantly of all, in all year groups, we encourage children to be reading at home every day. Sharing a book together with your child gives you the opportunity to escape into another world with your child and can be bonding and relaxing. Reading for pleasure will help develop your child’s vocabulary, communication, empathy, imagination and concentration. Whether this is sharing books by reading together (when children are in Nursery, Reception, Years 1, 2 and 3 this is crucial) or beginning to read more independently, we advise that all children read for at least 10 minutes a day. Ideally, 20 minutes a day would be the most beneficial.

Reading for just 20 minutes a day = 1.8 million words a year!

Once a child is reading independently, they still need to be able to retell their texts coherently and confidently to a parent/carer using book vocabulary and answer questions about what they are reading.

At Stonebridge, we are using a reading scheme called Bug Club to run alongside some of our other reading books.

In Reception and Key Stage 1, Phonics Bug reading books ensure that all children who are learning to read are given decodable reading books closely matched to their phonic knowledge. The books cover a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts.

In Key Stage 2, the Bug Club reading scheme provides finely-levelled books including popular characters such as Doctor Who. There are a range of texts types to engage different interests and build reading confidence, including fiction, non-fiction, comics, plays and poetry. In Years 3 – 6, home reading books are carefully selected and organised into reading bands that broaden children’s reading experience and support age related expectations for each year group.

In addition to the new Bug Club reading scheme, all of the existing fiction books will be colour coded to match the books within the scheme.

Here is a link to information on how to make the most of reading with your child:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18fzoHHvMM3Qq20Y2V9s4gHjWicNMUDd6/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to information about the different book bands and what they mean:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O3p114YqD69p0KPn00u2YnZ5NQ0Vcq6F/view?usp=sharing

Reading Records

Every child is provided with a Reading Record book to record what they have been reading. It also provides an opportunity for parents/carers to comment on their child’s reading. When parents/carers sign that they have listened to their child read this indicates to teaching staff that the child is ready for new books to be sent home (minimum of 2 books per week). It is important that Reading Records are in school daily to enable teachers to check, acknowledge and offer support as needed. Listed below are some comments which may help you when writing in your child’s Reading Record Book to describe how your child has read to you at home. To build a realistic picture and encourage your child appropriately, it is essential for both parent and teacher to have an open and honest dialogue, therefore, it is important to record both positive and negative comments. The statements below are just a guide; please feel free to alter the wording and write what best suits your experiences. For more information, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Read familiar words independently
Struggled to concentrate
Able to predict what happens next in the text
He/she made a number of errors because he was not looking carefully enough
Showed good understanding of the text
Would not read tonight
Read with good expression
Self-corrected own errors independently
Worked out new words independently
Found this book too hard to read
Worked out new words by sounding them out
Able to read this book with lots of help
Discussed the story and characters well
Struggled to work out a lot of the vocabulary
Used good spoken expression
Reading sounded robotic
Enjoyed reading this book a lot
Did not understand what he/she has read
Used the picture cues and the first sound of a word to work out words
Could not retell the story
Read with fluency and expression

Use the files below to download this information