Grosvenor Road, Chorley, Lancashire. PR7 2PJ
Dear Parents,
Thank you to those parents who attended our reading afternoons this week. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that regular reading and, in particular, reading for pleasure is one of the most important factors in good academic achievement and helping children reach their potential.
We are all very excited about launching our KS1 Reading Challenge and we hope you too will help to support and encourage your child to read regularly and enjoy their reading through our new and exciting ‘Reading Challenge’ which we started this week.
How it works...
Children have the opportunity to read up to 2 books per week that count towards earning their awards. These will be recorded in the back of their home/school reading record by the class teacher.
After they have completed 10 books they will have achieved their Bronze Award; after 15 books, their Silver Award and after 20 books, their Gold Award. They will be presented with a certificate for each award and, in addition, the Gold Award winners will receive a special gold reading badge.
It is possible that some children may achieve their Bronze Award by half term and hopefully even their Silver or Gold award by the time we get to Easter. After the Easter Holiday, those who have achieved their Gold Award, will have the opportunity to work towards becoming a Gillibrand Champion Reader. Trophies and medals will be awardedand your child will be entered into a prize draw to win book tokens.
We appreciate that parents are busy and time in the evening is sometimes short. If you can spend 10-15 minutes reading, on a daily basis, this should be enough to reach the targets and to make a huge contribution to your child’s development. Please sign the home/school diary when your child has read a book and we appreciate your comments about how well they read or whether they needed any adult support.
In addition, we would like to recommend a fantastic, fun, free, online resource called: Teach Your Monster to Read. If you are online at home you can find the website by typing ‘Teach Your Monster to Read’ into your search engine. This online learning programme compliments the phonic work done in school. Children can join the programme at their own developmental level and then work their way through.
Reception children should join at: First Steps
Year 1: Fun with Words
Year 2: Champion Reader
It is also possible to download the app to your tablet, however there is a charge of £3.99 for this, and, as the PC version is free, we are recommending this. We would be interested to hear whether you decide to try the programme out and how your child enjoys or benefits from it.
Many thanks for your ongoing support
And...as they say on Strictly...Keep Reading!!
KS1 Team