Reading At Home

Dear Parents,

We are writing to you to explain how you can support your child with reading at home now that all children are back at school.  Until we receive guidance from the Government regarding taking reading books home, we ask that you continue to support your child with reading at home using the online eBooks on the Oxford Owls website.

From Friday 12th March all children will bring home a ‘Home Reading Record’ containing the current book title/scheme and level written inside that your child is currently reading. Every time you listen to your child read please write inside recording the date and a comment and do include any reading already completed from today. Initially these reading records should be kept at home and returned with your child to school on Wednesday 17th March. From then on, all reading records will be returned every Wednesday and sent back with your child every Friday with any updates inside, if your child is on a new book or level.

If Reading Records are returned on Thursday then I’m afraid we won’t be able to let your child bring them back home until Monday as we have to ensure that we follow guidelines of quarantining books for 48 hours. Please continue to access these eBooks using the same ‘Class Login’ with a username and password that has already been emailed to you.

We strongly recommend reading the same book (up to Level 6) three times; once for decoding (working out the words), once for fluency (with expression) and once for comprehension (to ensure they understand what is happening).

There are helpful tips and videos on the Oxford Owl Website on how to support your child with reading at home.

Reading at Home Competition

I know you have already received information about our exciting new Reading At Home Competition but as a quick reminder, for every 25 reads marked in their Reading Record Book, your child will receive a certificate (emailed or given in school) and a raffle ticket.

All raffle tickets will be placed in their age category glass box and at the end of Term 4, four raffle tickets will be drawn from box. We have fun, age-related prizes for the winners.

All raffle tickets that are not drawn will remain in the glass box, so your child will continue to stand a chance of being recognised in the next draw in Term 5. This means the more they read, the more raffle tickets they receive, the more likely they are to win a prize!

Helpful tips

• Not all words can be sounded out – some like ‘said’ or ‘does’ have to be learned individually, so help your child to recognise these ‘tricky’ words.

• If your child is struggling to read a word, help them to break it down into sounds, then blend together to read the word. If they are still having problems, do it for them and get them to copy you.

There’s some advice on phonics on the Oxford Owl website.

• Encourage good expression when your child is reading aloud – demonstrate if necessary. They may not be able to do this whilst they are busy decoding, so will need to re-read the sentence to provide meaning.

• When they are developing in confidence, let your child read some of their book silently, then ask them to tell you about what they have read.

Above all, reading should be an enjoyable experience for you and your child so if you are having difficulties please do get in touch with your Class Teachers as they will be able to help.

Yours faithfully,

Miss Morrison

Year 1 Class Teacher

& School Phonics & Reading Co-ordinator