Reading in school and at home

Reading is the most important part of learning in Literacy and in school, as it is the basis for many other social and emotional developments in children from a very young age.

There can be few things as powerful as regularly reading to a young child. It has astonishing benefits for children: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. Giving a child time and full attention when reading them a story tells them they matter. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves their sleeping patterns.

Regularly reading to a child for the love of it provides a connection between parent and child from the very early days and helps build strong family ties. Lines from favourite stories enter the family vocabulary.

Families who enjoy reading together have more opportunities for discussion, developing empathy and attachment. Reading to their infant is one of the greatest gifts parents can give. By starting the journey of building a lifelong love of reading for pleasure, parents are giving their child the opportunity to be the best they can be: children who read for pleasure do better in a wide range of subjects at school and it also positively impacts children’s wellbeing

What can you do as a parent to help support your child’s reading?

It is so important to regularly read to, and listen to our children read even in our very busy lives-just 10 minutes a day can make a huge difference.

Regularly sending the school reading book in to be changed is so important. Children are exposed to books and other reading materials in school on a daily basis, but school needs parental support at home to build on these reading skills.

Encourage your child to retell a story they have heard. This will help your child to put ideas in the right order. Encourage your child to read things around them – cereal packets, notices and signs in shops. Discuss words. Read with your child – 10 minutes a day can help. Give your child puzzles to do like mazes and dot-to-dots – write out their name in dots and get them to trace over dots. Look for opportunities to do real writing – cards for birthdays, titles for drawings they have made. All of this makes such a difference to your children’s love of reading and has a massive impact in school.
Happy Reading!