A whole school approach to home reading

At North Scarle Primary we believe that reading with your child at home is the most important way in which you can help your child with their learning.

At school we teach children the skills they need to decode words and unpick texts, but to consolidate these skills and grow in confidence they need lots and lots of practice! Children who read with an adult develop these skills much more quickly and develop a love of reading that can last a lifetime. At North Scarle Primary we recognise the important role parents have and want to support this in every way we can, and we hope our reading reward scheme will really motivate children to read at home.

At North Scarle we use the Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics programme, this is a thorough systematic approach to teaching children to read. Children in reception have now learnt a bank of sounds and are developing their blending and decoding (sounding out) skills.

How does the reward scheme work?

The reward scheme is very simple. All children have to do is read at home and have their reading record signed by an adult. Pre-readers, such as our little learners or some of our reception children, can have their reading record signed once they’ve been read to by an adult. Once your child begins bringing books home in Reception, diaries can be signed once a child has read to an adult. Once children begin to read, the expectation is that all children will read to an adult and have their diary signed at least 3 times a week.

Research suggests that reading for 20 minutes, 3 times a week, is the minimum amount of exposure to texts children need in order to make the expected progress during their primary years. Reading aloud to an adult more than this leads to accelerated progress. As children move on to reading chapter books, reading their book at least 3 times a week also helps to keep them engaged and interested in their book. Less than this, children are likely to become switched off from what they are reading and are more likely to want to jump from book to book.

Read to Succeed reward scheme

• 30 stamps: A bronze certificate
• 60 stamps: A silver certificate
• 90 stamps: A gold certificate
• 120 stamps: A platinum certificate
• 150 stamps: A VIP bookmark to use throughout the rest of the year that serves as a ticket to our special VIP readers trip/event in July