Reading at Home
Reading at Over St. John’s
Reading is a fundamental skill, used to stimulate children's imaginations and where they learn to acquire a love for books. Teachers promote and value reading as an enjoyable activity and as an important life skill. Reading and sharing books at home, as well as in school, is essential and can make a huge difference to a child’s reading ability and helps to develop an enthusiasm for reading and a life-long love of books. At Over St. John’s, we encourage the daily reading and sharing of books at home and all children are expected to read at least four times a week which should be a priority. We carefully monitor the children’s reading at home and encourage parents to be fully active and engaged with us in this in order to support their child’s ongoing development.
Reading at Home
Children will bring home two reading books. Both books will match their current stage of reading based on the sounds that they are learning and are confident with. One book they will have read in Guided Reading in school and the otehr book is unseen.
In Sandymere children will bring home:
- 2 x reading book matched to their current reading level. These books will be linked to the children’s phonic lessons and will be based on the sounds that the children can confidently read. They will read this book in school one week and bring it home the following week.
- a phonically decodable book timetable, which provides you with ideas for what to do when reading
Reading can also take on the following forms:
- Independent reading of a school book.
- Sharing a book together.
- Talking about the book together and answering questions about it.
Children may choose to read a book they have read before. This is great. This helps to familiarise themselves with the text and type of book as well as developing fluency and confidence in reading.
Online Reading Log
This year we have moved to an online reading log for the recording of reading at home, through an online platform called Learning with Parents. Each week, you will receive an email or text from Learning with Parents with a secure weekly reading link to your child’s log. This secure link will take you straight to your child’s reading log home page. You can log your child’s reading by leaving a comment, photograph or audio clip. The class teacher then receives your feedback and photographs so they can see how your child is getting on. Teachers will acknowledge this reading with a tick.
The online reading logs will be checked weekly by an adult in school and reading is rewarded through our school raffle ticket reward system. For each read recorded on the online log, children will receive a raffle ticket.
Children must read at least 4 times a week to complete their weekly target of 4 reads.
Once they have reached their weekly target, they will receive a sticker on their online reading log.
Once they have reached their target of 4 reads per week, 10 times, they will receive their bronze reading star badge, which will be presented in school.
Once they have reached their target of 4 reads per week, 25 times, they will receive their silver reading star badge, which will be presented in school.
Once they have reached their target of 4 reads per week, 35 times, they will receive their gold reading star badge and a certificate, which will be presented in school by Mrs Snowdon.
We would like to thank you for your continued support and if you have any questions, please send them into admin@overstjohns.cheshire.sch.uk and they will forward it on to your child’s class teacher.
School Library
The school library also opens every Tuesday during term time from 3:00-3:30pm where you are able to come along and take away any book that you would like.
Resources to support reading at home.
Free e book library on Oxford Owl You need to register and then the books are free to read online.