National College

When sharing a book with your child, try to take opportunities to talk about the book - before, during and after reading. 

Grimoldby Primary School has worked with The National College to showcase best practice in reading for pleasure. The National College filmed four videos in our school:

Insights on Reading for Pleasure
https://nationalcollege.com/webinars/english-hub-reading-for-pleasure

Insights from a Reading for Pleasure Leader

https://nationalcollege.com/webinars/english-hub-in-action-reading-leader

Insights from Grimoldby Primary School

https://nationalcollege.com/webinars/english-hub-grimoldby-primary-school

Insights from Reading Ambassadors

https://nationalcollege.com/webinars/english-hub-reading-ambassadors

In the videos, we discussed  the many strategies we’ve employed since 2021 to promote our positive change with reading for pleasure. You’ll even from our pupils!

Reading with your child

When sharing a book with your child, try to take opportunities to talk about the book - before, during and after reading. 

Before reading: look at the book cover and talk about your child’s expectations. Is the book likely to be fiction or non-fiction? Have you read other books together about these characters or by this author? What does your child think the book is going to be about?

While reading: support your child when unknown words need tackling: you can sound them out, split them into syllables, or identify suffixes and prefixes. Remind your child to listen to the words while reading them, to make sure that they make sense. Have a ‘meaning check’ every now and again to ensure that your child understands the text.

After reading: talk about the book. What was it about? Did it match your child’s expectations? Ask questions beginning with the words how and why to check that your child has been able to read between the lines. Ask whether anything seemed puzzling. Then ask your child to explain what the best and worst bits of the book were, and why.