When a child turns 18, they will have spent between 9-13% of their waking life in a classroom. For every hour we have a child in school, their parents have them for ten. The importance of children reading at home is crucial to their development as readers.
At St Alban’s we had our own reading designed and tailored our needs:
The expectation is our children read at least three times a week at home and parents record it in their diaries. As children progress through the school, more ownership is placed on the children to record this independently.
Diaries are checked every week by the class teacher. Every time a child has read at home that week (maximum of three), the teacher records in on the racing reading track in the diary. There are four awards available:
• Bronze (25 reads),
• Silver (50 reads),
• Gold (75 reads)
• Governors Award (110 reads).
There is a special assembly in the Summer when children are presented with their Governor’s Award and leather bookmark. https://wsap.academy/governors-reading-award-2023/
We highly value the parents and carer within our community. We know they want the absolute best for their children and will help anyway they can.
- Training Videos: Because of this, we offer regular RWInc. training for parents to help them support their children at home. The sessions are recorded by the class teachers so parents can access at a time convenient to them.
- Virtual Schools: Once a week, the classroom teachers share a video online with parents that shows the sounds they have been learning that week. These videos are produced by RWInc. and they are of an incredibly high quality. Children are expected to watch one of these videos a week at home with a parent.
- Sharing Assessments: As we see parents are partners, we want to celebrate the progress the children are making. Every time a child is assessed, this is shared with the parents (along with any necessary jargon-busting).
- Home Activities: Each half-term, an activity is stuck into each child’s reading diary. This activity has been carefully constructed to allow parents to engage with their children’s reading. The reading lead makes a video at their launch to explain to parent’s what is expected.
- RWInc. Expectations: In KS1, RWInc. Information is regularly shared with children in their Reading Diaries. It lists the sounds the child is working on as well as the speed they need to be reading at.
In KS2, every half term, a Home Reading Task is added to the diaries. These are open ended activities, linked to the content domains, that parents can be involved with:
Each activity is stuck into each child’s reading diary and a video tutorial is made as well: https://wsap.academy/ks2-home-reading-activity-summer-2/
Reading to an Audience:
At St. Alban’s we have broken down Reading to an Audience into seven small steps which are used within school and link to the Home Reading Activities:
Reading Skills:
Our reading skills are reading prompts based on the 2016 reading content domains found in the National Curriculum Test Framework documents. All questions the children are asked through comprehensions (Pathway to Read, Cracking Comprehension or Tests) will be on these eight skills. They have been designed by the staff at St Albans to help embed the differing content domains within the short- and long-term memory of our children. Each skill has a title, an image, a catch-phrase and the actual wording of the National Curriculum Content domain.
More detailed guidance can be found in the Parental Guidance Document: https://wsap.academy/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Parental-Guidance-KS2-1.pdf
“Reading is like reality. Anything can happen, anyone can happen. At any time or place – Alfie Y5