The more that you read, 

the more things you will know. 

The more that you learn, 

the more places you’ll go.” 

(Dr Seuss, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!”)

Every child at St Paul's has at least one reading book, which they select from either one of our libraries, from the class bookshelves or from home.  Children are given the time to read and to listen to stories at school. They are also strongly encouraged to read with grown-ups at home, and in Reception to Year 4, a written record of home-reading is kept.

Children who are learning to read, generally in Reception and Year 1, will have a "learning to read book" which stays at school. That book is specially selected to ensure that it only contains phonemes (letter sounds) that the child has been taught to read.   These children will also have a "read for pleasure book" which they will bring home.  This may contain tricky words and sounds. In order to support parents and carers in hearing their child read, we welcome those with children in Reception and Year 1 to annual "Phonics Evenings", and we welcome all parents and carers to a "Relax and Read" evening.

Annual “Relax and Read” evenings are where we invite parents and carers to presentations on how to engage children in reading at home, and how to enable children to develop their skills at decoding and comprehension.  Children come in PJs and enjoy bedtime stories and chocolate milk.

Parents and carers often ask what sort of questions they should pose to their children as they're reading at home, in order to develop their comprehension skills. We suggest "reading with ERIC" - here's what we mean:

ERIC 

E: Explaining new vocabulary

R: Retrieving information

I: Interpreting information

C: Choice (thinking about the choices made by the author/director/artist)