Driffield C of E Infant School
Reading workshop for parents
April 2012
Supporting your child at home
As parents you are your child's most influential teacher with an important part to
play in helping your child to learn to read.
Here are some suggestions on how you can help to make this a positive experience.
1. Choose a quiet time
Set aside a quiet time with no distractions. Ten to fifteen minutes is usually long enough.
2. Make reading enjoyable
Make reading an enjoyable experience. Sit with your child. Find somewhere quiet. Switch the
TV off! Try not to pressurise if he or she is reluctant. If your child loses interest then do
something else.
3. Maintain the flow
If your child mispronounces a word do not interrupt immediately. Instead allow opportunity
for self-correction. It is better to tell a child some unknown words to maintain the flow
rather than insisting on trying to build them all up from the sounds of the letters. When your
child does try to 'sound out' words, encourage the use of letter sounds rather than
'alphabet names'.
4. Be positive
If your child says something nearly right to start with that is fine. Don't say 'No. That's
wrong,' but 'Let's read it together' and point to the words as you say them. Boost your
child's confidence with constant praise for even the smallest achievement.
5. Success is the key
Parents anxious for a child to progress can mistakenly give a child a book that is too
difficult. This can have the opposite effect to the one they are wanting. Remember 'Nothing
succeeds like success'. Until your child has built up his or her confidence, it is better to keep
to easier books. Struggling with a book with many unknown words is pointless. Flow is lost,
text cannot be understood and children can easily become reluctant readers. Children will
bring books home that are easier than the books they are reading at school. The book they
bring home is for practice and to develop speed and accuracy. Read each book at least 3
times with your child (over different nights)- the first time to decode the words, the second
time to ‘use a story voice’, the third time to talk about the story and develop an
understanding. Parents often feed back that books are ‘too easy’! This should be the case
when children bring a book home to practise, it means they can develop speed and confidence
6. Practise sounds and play word-games
As your child learns new sounds in school they will bring them home to practice ( generally 4
every fortnight). Practise these together, make words for your children to read. Say a word
and ask them to make it. They will also have some ‘tricky’ words that can’t be de-coded
(sounded out) but have to be learnt. We will have taught these at school but again they will
need practice. Children will no longer have lots of words in their tub, but will have sound
cards so that they can make words themselves.
7. Visit the Library
Encourage your child to use the public library regularly. Share favourite stories over and
over again. This helps develop children’s ‘story language’ and develop very important
vocabulary.
8. Regular practice
Try to read with your child on most school days. 'Little and often' is best. Teachers have
limited time to help your child with reading so any help you can give them at home will really
pay off. Regular practice is essential in developing the speed children need to be fluent
readers. Remember a regular night time story is as important as ‘the school reading book’!
9. Communicate
Your child will have a reading diary from school. Try to communicate regularly with positive
comments and any concerns. Your child will then know that you are interested in their
progress and that you value reading.
10. Talk about the books
There is more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words accurately. Just
as important is being able to understand what has been read. Always talk to your child about
the book; about the pictures, the characters, how they think the story will end, their
favourite part. You will then be able to see how well they have understood and you will help
them to develop good comprehension skills.
11. Variety is important
Remember children need to experience a variety of reading materials eg. picture books, hard
backs, comics, magazines, poems, and information books.
12. The Don’ts of Reading!
 Make reading an unpleasant task
 Threaten to tell us at school if they don’t do it.
 Make your child feel they are in competition with anyone else
 Show anxiety about their disinterest
 Be afraid to ask for help
 Have the telly on!
 Force them if they are tired!
Resources and Activities
There are also many useful websites you can use to motivate learning. However I
recommend them with a ‘health warning’! The computer cannot replace books and playing
traditional games with your child. It is most beneficial if activities are done together. Use
of the computer should be limited each day. I would suggest no more than 20-30 minutes a
day and certainly not just before bedtime.
Sites we recommend:
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www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle
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www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo
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www.bbc.co.uk/digger
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www.starfall.com
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www.ladybird.com

www.themouseclub.co.uk
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www.pbskids.org/noddy/game
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www.kids-channel.co.uk

www.poissonrouge.com/abc/index
A useful book for helping with reading at home:
“You and Your Child: Reading games” published by Usborne Books
Useful resources to have at home:
Magnetic letters (great on the fridge!)
Chalkboards and chalk
Jigsaws
Lots of story books
Puppets
The sound cards we provide to make words
In School
We are teaching children to read using a system of synthetic phonics. We aim to teach
children to develop speed and accuracy first and from there develop comprehension skills.
Our teaching of reading is embedded in our Letters and Sounds Phonics programme. All
children have a daily phonics session of around 20 minutes. This programme is broken down
into 6 phases:
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Phase 1-basic elements of sound (pre-school)
Phase 2/ phase 3; teach children one representation of each sound (Foundation
Stage)
Phase 4 :consolidates blending and segmenting of sounds in longer words
(Foundation Stage)
Phase 5:learn alternative representations of sounds (Y1)
Phase 6: children become more fluent readers and increasingly accurate spellers
(Y2)
Learning to read is all about ‘solving a code’ which involves learning that single letters or
combinations of letters make sounds. The children learn how to blend these sounds
together quickly to read words. This gives them the confidence to tackle harder and more
complex words. Children are able to ‘read’ as soon as they know the first group or sounds
and can blend them together eg s,a,t,p – children can read sat, pat, tap, at etc. The
children also learn how to segment the words into separate sounds in order to spell.
As soon as the children can do this they will be introduced to phonic reading books so
that they can begin to develop their comprehension skills along with their speed and
accuracy. Children are taught to read in small groups, playing sound games and looking at
and discussing the book together. Those children who are struggling will be given extra
support on a one to one basis. We have invested a new scheme of phonics books for
children right up to Y2. As they become more confident with their reading they will be
introduced to a greater variety of books to develop their skills. By the end of Year 2 the
children will be expected to remember the key points from fiction and non-fiction texts.
They should have the skills to try different ways to read unfamiliar words and fluency
and understanding will become important features of the children’s reading as will the use
of a more expressive reading voice.
Making predictions from the pictures and talking about what they can see and think might
be happening really does help them develop the skills of ‘inference’ which are really
important as they develop their reading and use reading to find out information. The
children should also use the pictures and the context of the text to help them work out
words which aren’t decidable.
Once children become more fluent the focus will move to comprehension, some of the
things the children need to practice, which you can help them with are:
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Discuss the meaning of new words- perhaps putting the new word into a sentence of
their own.
Find specific words or phrases which explain something in detail;
Predicting what will happen next;
Talk about what has happened and why;
With non-fiction books talk about what we might learn , think of questions we could
ask, use contents page.
We have rebanded our reading books so that they are in line with both the phases of
letters and sounds and the levels of attainment for KS1.
We hope you find this information useful.
If you would like to know more please don’t hesitate in talking to your class teacher.
New Reading Colours
New Colour
Reading Level
Old Colour
lilac
No words (ELG)
white
Pink (A and B)
Working towards level 1 phase 2 (ELG)
red
Red (A and B)
Working towards level 1 phase 3
red
(ELG)
yellow
Level 1C Phases 3/4
green
blue
Level 1B phases 4/5
blue
green
Level 1A phase 5
Just on yellow
orange
Working towards 2 phase 5/6
Quite confident in yellow
turquoise
Working towards 2 phase 5/6
Getting ready to move from
yellow
purple
Level 2C phase 6
violet
gold
Level 2B phase 6
orange
white
Level 2A phase 6
pink
lime
Level 3
Gold/free choice