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WORD at Home
Reading at Home
As part of our literacy vision at HABE, we encourage our students to dedicate time each night to reading some sort of text. This can be individually or with a parent/guardian. It has been proven spending even 20 minutes at home reading can help improve students reading ages.
As part of this, we here at HABE have developed a “Reading for Pleasure” recommended reading list which can be found clicking on the link below.
However, this page explains how to borrow books if students are unable to attend school for a while or are taking part in some online learning provisions. Username and passwords have been sent out to parents.
You'll also find lots of useful links to reading resources and other tips to help you carry on enjoying your reading.
Email Mr. Collier on s.collier@harrisbeckenham.org.uk if you have any queries concerning passwords, reading levels, reading tips or how to find reading materials.
The books range for each year group and help widen students knowledge and understanding of a wide range of multicultural and diverse concepts. The reading ruler can be used here as a decoding skill to heighten awareness while also helping students develop a rich vocabulary bank.
Access to Books and Audiobooks
Project Gutenberg - good for classics.
Oxford Owl - expert advice, educational resources and free eBooks to support children's learning at home, from Oxford University Press.
David Walliams daily free audio story for 30 days.
Audible.com - free audible books for all ages.
Researchify - Word/PDF/Audiobooks of Children’s Classics.
The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust has also created a short reading list of books that are available to read online.
myON are offering access to thousands of enhanced digital books through online library to help 'keep the UK and Ireland reading'.
Have a look at World Book Day’s World of Stories, where you can listen to audiobooks of some of your favourite books.
Listen to Skulduggery Pleasant 1 as an audiobook.
Literacy Trust: The Book of Hopes. Completely free for all children and families, the extraordinary collection of short stories, poems, essays and pictures has contributions from more than 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Greg James and Chris Smith, Michael Morpurgo, Liz Pichon, Axel Scheffler, Francesca Simon and Jacqueline Wilson.
Time Edge is a digital magazine that teachers you about current events. All of the content is written by the editors of the world famous publications TIME and TIME For Kids. You'll need to submit your email address to access the magazine.
Massolit provides a wide range of lectures and extra audio books on subjects across numerous subject areas including English, History, Politics ect. To heighten the knowledge and understanding of students.
British Museum - Worth finding a desktop computer to explore the collection in a beautiful interactive and engaging way. The kids enjoy playing it like a musical instrument and seeing how far back in time they could go. www.britishmuseum.withgoogle.com
Vocabulary at Home
We recognise that in order to fully engage with the challenge expected in curriculum texts, writing and oracy, students need to master a range of 2nd tier vocabulary. In order to ensure this and to safeguard students from the literacy consequences of deprivation, we have embedded the computer aided programme Bedrock Vocabulary. 2nd tier vocabulary is explicitly taught through fiction and non-fiction texts online and students are then expected to apply their knowledge to pieces of writing to demonstrate their learning.
Students are carefully placed at the right level, using their reading age and curriculum assessment data, which ensures all students can access the same high expectations for language acquisition. To support teacher workload and still ensure our students receive the best possible mastery teaching, key words being learnt on the programme are sent to class teachers via the platform so that learnt words can be easily revisited to support retention. Students are also tested at appropriately spaced times on the Bedrock platform to prevent words being lost and ensure all words are embedded into their own lexicon. Using our Academy homework booklets, the English department also place words learnt on Bedrock in the success criteria each week. Parent access codes can also be retrieved from s.collier@harrisbeckenham .org.uk and this is something we encourage for parents to be involved in their students learning.
Advice for Parents Reading with Your Child
Read yourself! Show a good example by talking about the reading you do at work and at home. Take 10 minutes out of your day and sit and read in front of your child. You could read a novel, an autobiography or a newspaper. Show your child that reading is an important part of your life. They learn from your enthusiasm and it can really benefit them for they are in school.
Take time to read together as a family. Talk about your reading and show the pleasure that can be gained from it. Listening to stories is not only fun but it helps development of language too. Don’t be afraid to read to your child. Enjoy the experience and don’t worry if even you make the odd mistake - everybody does! Dedicating a regular time slot to the activity of reading together shows your daughter that you value reading and that you’re interested in what she’s reading.
Use phonics to help your child sound out new and unfamiliar words. You can find some helpful information on how phonics works on the BBC’s webpage ‘The Alphablocks’ Guide to Phonics’. Books in the Oxford Owl free eLibrary are suitable for students who are at the early stages of developing their reading skills.
Praise and celebration, especially when they find reading difficult. If you are particularly impressed by your daughter’s/son’s dedication to reading, email Mr Collier on s.collier@harrisbeckenham.org.uk to let me know. He has plenty of Praise Postcards to hand out!
