Reading at Home
Reading with your child at home makes more difference than almost anything else you can do. Ten minutes most evenings is worth far more than an hour once a week, and the benefit shows up not just in reading but across every subject.
This page explains what we send home, why, and how you can help.
How children learn to read at Bexton
Learning to read begins long before school, with stories, rhymes and songs. Sharing books with a baby or toddler builds vocabulary, a sense of how language works, and the idea that books are enjoyable. All of that is the ground that reading is built on.
When children start school, we teach reading through phonics. Children learn the sounds that letters make and how to blend those sounds together to read a word. This is taught in a carefully planned order, so each new sound builds on what came before.
This is why we ask you not to encourage your child to guess a word from the picture, the first letter or the shape of the word. Guessing works for a while and then stops working, and it is a hard habit to undo. Sounding out and blending works for every word your child will ever meet.
Alongside phonics, children learn a set of helpful words. These are common words that either cannot be sounded out in the usual way or come up so often that instant recognition keeps reading flowing. We teach these to be recognised on sight so that children can read smoothly and concentrate on what the text actually means.
Reading at school
Reading happens constantly at Bexton, not only in reading lessons.
Every class has a story time. Teachers read aloud daily, choosing books that widen children's experience of authors and genres beyond what they would pick themselves.
In Reception and Year 1, children read regularly to an adult, individually and in small groups so that teachers can hear each child and teach precisely what that child needs next.
From Year 2, whole class reading sessions build comprehension through discussion and questioning, using ambitious texts that every child can access.
Children read across the curriculum, in science, history, geography and everywhere else.
What we send home
Reception and Year 1: two decodable books a week. These are matched to the sounds your child has been taught, so they contain nothing your child has not already learned. That is deliberate. A book your child can read independently builds confidence and fluency. A book full of unfamiliar sounds teaches guessing.
Please expect your child to read the same book more than once. Re-reading is not a waste of time. It is how reading becomes fluent, and fluency is what allows a child to think about meaning rather than about decoding.
We also send home the sounds your child is currently learning and helpful words to practise.
Once the alphabetic code is secure: banded books. When your child no longer needs books restricted to particular sounds, they move on to banded books, which widen the range of what they read while still being well matched to their reading level.
Then: library books. Children choose from a range matched to their reading ability. Teachers reassess this regularly and update it as children progress.
Six things that help
Make time, even ten minutes. Little and often beats long and occasional.
Take turns. You read a page, your child reads a page. This keeps the story moving and lets your child hear fluent reading modelled.
Read to your child as well as listening to them read. Sharing a book beyond what they could manage alone builds vocabulary and a love of stories. Keep doing this well past the age they can read independently.
Talk about the book. What might happen next? Why did that character do that? What does that word mean? How would you feel?
Notice the language. Point out a word you like, a phrase that creates a picture, or something that made you laugh.
Enjoy it. If reading at home becomes a battle, it stops working. Tell us, and we will help you find a way round it.
A few practical things
Use pure sounds. When sounding out, say "mmm" rather than "muh", and "sss" rather than "suh". Adding an extra sound on the end makes blending much harder. Your child's teacher is always happy to demonstrate.
If the book is too hard, tell us. Your child's reading book should be something they can read with a little support, not a struggle. If it is causing tears, it is the wrong book and we will change it.
Use the reading diary. Signing it tells us reading is happening at home and lets us celebrate it. It is also the quickest way to send us a message about how your child is getting on.
Finding books your child will enjoy
Getting the right book into a child's hands is often the thing that turns a reluctant reader around.
Your child's class page has recommended books for their year group. At the bottom of this page you will find our branching out lists, which suggest new authors and titles based on books your child already likes.
If your child has read everything by one author and does not know where to go next, ask us. Staff at Bexton read children's books and are genuinely pleased to be asked.
Any questions?
If you would like advice about your child's reading, please speak to their class teacher. If you would like to know more about how reading is taught here, our Reading at Bexton page explains our approach in more detail, and we run sessions for parents during the year on phonics and early reading.