School Gateway

Hillbrook Primary School

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Supporting At Home

Parents play a key role in encouraging their child to develop a positive attitude to reading. Although your child will be taught to read at school, parents have a huge impact on their reading journey by continuing their practice and enjoyment of reading at home.

Early Reading

To support your child with their development in Early Reading, please ensure you are up to date with our weekly learning updates which outline what your child has covered that week. You can practice the sounds they are working on in class using the documents below.

Reception (Autumn 1 – phase 2)

Reception (Autumn 2 – phase 2)

Reception (Spring 1 and 2 – phase 3)

Year 1 (phase 5)

There are two types of reading book that your child will bring home:

1. A reading practice book

This book has been carefully matched to your child’s current phonic stage and reading level. They should be able to read this fluently and independently. If your child is reading this book with little help, please don’t worry that it’s too easy – your child needs to develop fluency and confidence in reading. Your child will have the same reading practice book for the week which should be reread lots of times! S/he will already have read this book a number of times with their teacher. Re-reading the same book again and again has been proven to accelerate reading progress as children gain more confidence each time they return to the book.

2. A sharing book

We strongly believe that there are times when books are simply to be enjoyed. In order to encourage your child to become a lifelong reader, it is important that they learn to read for pleasure. We encourage and support children in making independent choices of books that capture their interest.  The sharing book is a book that your child has chosen for you to enjoy together. Your child is unlikely to be able to read this book on their own. Read it to or with them. If your child is a more confident reader, then you might like to challenge them to read the odd word or sentence on their own.

Sharing books are more likely to be richer in vocabulary and have more complex events than the reading practice book. Discuss the pictures, enjoy the story, predict what might happen next, use different voices for the characters, explore the facts in a non-fiction book and chat about new words that they might not understand the meaning of. The main thing is that you have fun!

Key Stage 2

Children in KS2 should be encouraged to read at home for 20- 30 minutes every day. As with younger children, it is vital that children are given opportunities to read aloud. This is just as important for older children who are decoding texts fluently – they may be able to read the words, but they also need opportunities to share their understanding of what has been read as well as discuss for example, opinions, the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary and underlying themes. The following question prompts can structure your reading sessions with your KS2 child.

Comprehension stems for KS1 (VIPERS)

Comprehension stems for KS2 (VIPERS)