Parent reading workshop success

“I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” 

- Roald Dahl

Tomas' Mum sharing a book in Norsk

Thank you to all of the parents that joined up on Wednesday evening for our reading workshop.  It was lovely to see you and be able to talk about such an important subject.

If you were unable to attend, the main messages we highlighted are below but please see your child's class teacher if you wish for more information.  

• Making reading pleasurable
• Encouraging children to read across a variety of genres 
• Reading to your child as well as getting them to read to you
• Talking about the whole text including the cover and pictures
• Putting books into a real life context for children
• Encouraging book talk
• Asking questions about the text
• Discussing punctuation and text features
• Giving children ownership (allowing them to hold the book)
• Writing a note in children's reading diaries to communicate with teachers
• Encouraging children to use a range of strategies to help when they are stuck 
• The importance of learning 'tricky words' by heart
• Using phonics to help decode words

We loved reading comments from parents after the workshop.  

What was useful...

"Finding out what other parents do at home when reading."

"The video...very useful!"

"Lovely to see how you do reading at school."

"Being reminded that any material can be used for reading...e.g. Top trump cards."

"The guide for reading will be really useful."

"Interesting examples of books."

What you would like to know more about...

"Maths next time please."

"More videos...perhaps maths."

"Ideas on how to encourage writing too."

"Improvement of writing."

We are planning to carry out a Maths Workshop early next term pending the arrival of our 'Maths Packs'.  (Very exciting!)

We are currently trying to upload the video we promised of Ms Morton reading with a Year 1 child but are experiencing some technical hitches...watch this space!