Benedict Biscop Prince Bishop School Teaching Alliance Leading School
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Supporting Parents with Reading at Home

At Hart Primary School we believe that reading should be a fundamental part of childhood and a skill which should be developed to support lifelong learning.

Our aim is to develop and embed a strong, sustainable reading culture within the school community.  Confident and competent readers will foster a love of reading through a rich and varied experience of texts.

Inspiring children to read is their fundamental right.  It underpins all learning and secures a good trajectory for personal development and an understanding the world in which they live.

As a school, we promote reading for pleasure in a number of ways:

  • Story sacks in EYFS
  • ‘Our Books’ in KS1 which children bring home to share with parents.
  • In Y5/6, each child has a ‘Reading Passport’ which encourages them to read a range of different texts, from classic texts to contemporary literature, poetry and non-fiction.
  • Each year group has at least one story time per day.
  • Each half term, adults from across the school share book recommendations with children.

Supporting your child with phonics at home

If your child is in Reception and Year 1, they will still be learning to decode words using phonics. We appreciate that this is very different to how you may have been taught to read as a child, and so have compiled a page of resources to show you how we do this. Please follow this link for more information: Phonics and Early Reading

Top Tips for Reading for Pleasure

  • Set aside a special time – just a few minutes a day is enough to create a reading habit.
  •  Get caught reading yourself – show that reading for pleasure is not just for children.
  •  Read to each other – if your child really doesn’t want to read on their own, then read together. You read a page, then they read a page. Or one of you could read any dialogue. Be brave and put on different voices.
  •  Value the books they choose to read – all reading is valuable for a child’s development. Some of us prefer non-fiction; some of us prefer comics. One child might like superhero books; another might a book of football statistics.
  •  Set a challenge – can they read ten books before they’re ten? Can they read a book from six different genres: a comic, an information book, a funny book, a sci-fi book, a classic and an instruction manual?
  •  Reading buddies – reading to a younger sibling can boost your child’s self-confidence and communication skills.
  •  Audiobooks – audiobooks allow children to experience a book above their own reading level. It also allows you to share a book together or make the most of those car journeys. Listening to a story over and over again can improve vocabulary and encourage deeper comprehension.
  •  Stage and screen – use your child’s favourite films or games as a springboard into reading. Knowing the characters and storyline can be a helpful bridge into reading a longer story.

Reading Challenges

To support you in helping your child develop a love of reading, we will be sending home a reading challenge each holiday. We’d love to see photos of your child participating in the challenges, and any photos you take can be emailed to info.hart@nllt.co.uk

Recommended Texts

Please follow the links below to find some recommended texts for your child’s age group:

Recommended texts for children aged 3 and 4 (Nursery)

Recommended texts for children aged 4 and 5 (Reception)

Recommended texts for children aged 5 and 6 (Year 1)

Recommended texts for children aged 6 and 7 (Year 2)

Recommended texts for children aged 7 and 8 (Year 3)

Recommended texts for children aged 8 and 9 (Year 4)

Recommended texts for children aged 9 and 10 (Year 5)

Recommended texts for children aged 10 to 11 (Year 6)

Recommended books to prepare Year 6 children for transition to Year 7

Useful Links

Please use the links below to find stories to read for pleasure online:

Our Values and Ethos

We have a set of school values that were devised in conjunction with our Governors, pupils, parents and staff

Friendship & Trust

Always our Best

Thankfulness

Compassion

Privacy Policy

We regard your privacy as important and any personal information you give to us will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations.

We do not store personal information about individuals who visit this site except where they provide contact information via our contact us page and contact forms available on various pages throughout the website.

Any information you provide will only be used for the reasons specified and it will not be shared with any third party without your consent, unless required by law.

Your contact details are kept securely and are only accessed by authorised members of staff as part of the provision of school services. If you do not wish us to keep this contact information please tell us.

This website uses Google Analytics which provides statistical data about the usage of the site. This information is not used to identify individuals, but is collected to provide us with an understanding of the areas of interest on our site and how our site is being used.

If you are connected to the internet you will have an IP Address. This may take the form of a figure, such as 333.333.22.1. The address will be automatically collected and logged as part of the connection of your computer to our web server and may be used to determine the total number of visits to each part of the site. This data is not collected and used for other purposes.

This website contains links to other websites. The School is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites or organisations and recommends you consult the privacy information on those sites.

This policy will be reviewed and updated versions will be posted on the website.

If you have any questions about the use of your personal information, the Information Commissioner is the independent regulator for both Data Protection and Freedom of Information.