Reading at Home

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Supporting your child’s learning at home makes a significant difference to their progress, confidence and enjoyment of school. Simple, regular routines - such as listening to your child read and talking about their day - help to strengthen understanding and build a love of learning. At Brooklands our expectation is that children read every single day at home.

Reading is the key to the curriculum (and the universe)

Reading at home is one of the most powerful ways to support your child. Regular reading helps to develop vocabulary, understanding and imagination, while also building confidence and a lifelong love of books.

There are many ways to support your child’s reading, and a balance of informal and more structured support works best:

Informal support

  • Reading together every day

  • Talking about stories and characters

  • Telling and sharing stories

  • Playing games linked to books

  • Letting your child see you reading

Structured support

  • Practising letter sounds and ‘tricky’ words

  • Supporting blending (reading words) and segmenting (spelling words)

  • Listening to your child read regularly

 

Reading at Brooklands

At Brooklands, we place reading at the heart of learning. We use the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (Revised) programme to teach early reading, with daily phonics lessons from Reception through to Year 2, and additional support where needed in Key Stage 2.

Children take home a reading book matched to their level, alongside a second book to share for enjoyment. Bookmarks help guide whether your child should read independently or whether the book is to be shared together. Regular reading at home, alongside school support, has a huge impact on children’s progress.

We encourage children to read daily and to bring their reading book and record into school every day so that staff can make the most of opportunities to read with them.

 

Phonics

Phonics teaching at Brooklands follows the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (Revised) programme. Children learn to recognise sounds, blend them to read words and segment them to spell. As their skills develop, they apply this knowledge in reading and writing across the curriculum.

We support parents to feel confident in helping their children at home through workshops and shared resources. You can also find useful guidance here:

https://www.littlewandle.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

 

By working together, we can ensure every child becomes a confident reader who enjoys reading for pleasure as well as for learning.