Kirton Primary School

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Reading at Home

Reading for Pleasure

Families play a vital role in developing a love of reading. Reading regularly with your child, talking about stories, and sharing books together — even when children can read independently — all support enjoyment and understanding. Making reading part of everyday life and showing children that you enjoy reading too helps build positive reading habits.

 Together, we can help every child at Kirton Primary School grow into a confident reader who reads for pleasure, curiosity and joy.

Top Tips for Reading at Home

At our school, we believe that reading at home is a vital part of your child’s learning from Reception through to Year 6. Regular reading helps children develop confidence, fluency and a lifelong love of books, while strengthening the skills they need across the whole curriculum.

We encourage children to read little and often – even 10–15 minutes a day makes a big difference. Short, regular sessions help children practise key skills and develop enjoyment without feeling pressured.

Children will bring home books that are carefully matched to their stage of reading. For our younger children and early readers, this includes decodable phonics books that reinforce letters, sounds and blending skills through our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised programme, alongside sharing or library books to develop enjoyment and vocabulary. As children move through Key Stage 2, they will bring home appropriately levelled books and novels that build fluency, comprehension and deeper understanding, as well as books chosen for pleasure and personal interest.

For children learning phonics, practising at home strengthens what they are taught in school. Encourage them to sound out words carefully, blend sounds smoothly and re-read familiar words to build fluency. For more confident and fluent readers, focus on discussing vocabulary, summarising chapters, predicting what might happen next and exploring characters’ thoughts and feelings.

Reading together remains important at every stage. Even once children can read independently, sharing books allows for discussion, enjoyment and exposure to rich language. Asking questions about the text, themes and author’s choices helps develop comprehension and critical thinking skills.

All reading at home should be logged through BoomReader. This enables us to celebrate achievements, track progress and provide effective support. Please update BoomReader regularly so we can monitor your child’s reading journey.

To make reading successful:

  • Keep it positive and enjoyable.

  • Allow your child to choose books that interest them.

  • Praise effort and progress as well as accuracy.

  • Build reading into daily routines, such as bedtime stories or quiet reading time.

If you have any questions about reading, phonics, the books your child brings home or using BoomReader, please contact your child’s class teacher. We are always happy to work in partnership with you to develop confident, enthusiastic readers.

Here are some useful links to support with reading at home:

How to support your child's reading at home - BBC Bitesize

Tips for reading at home - The Children's Literacy Charity

10 top tips for parents to support children to read - GOV.UK

Reading tips | BookTrust

Support with Phonics and Reading

Supporting your child’s phonics and reading at home plays an important role in their progress and confidence. We encourage families to read regularly with their child and to practise phonics skills that are taught in school, helping to reinforce learning and build fluency.

Children will bring home reading books that are closely matched to their current phonics knowledge, ensuring they can practise reading with success. We ask that families read with their child little and often, offering praise and encouragement as they build confidence.

Reading completed at home should be logged using BoomReader, which allows us to celebrate children’s reading achievements and monitor progress. Regular updates on BoomReader help us to support your child effectively and ensure strong communication between home and school.

If you have any questions about phonics, reading books, or using BoomReader, please speak to your child’s class teacher, who will be happy to help. 

Kirton Primary School follows the ‘Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ scheme to teach daily phonics sessions in Reception and Year 1. This systematic, synthetic phonics programme follows a clear sequence in order to support our children to learn how to blend for reading and segment to spell. We carefully match your child’s reading book to their phonic stage using the ‘Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised’ books. Each week, our children are supported to develop skills in decoding, reading with expression and comprehension.

Please click here to find out how you can support your child with phonics at home

Reception and Year 1 teaching programme overview

 If you have the Little Wandle at Home Phonics Flashcards, four fun games are available on the Collins website to support learning at home. 

Phase 2 Reception Autumn 1 Grapheme SheetPhase 2 Reception Autumn 2 Grapheme Sheet

Phase 3 Reception Spring 1 Grapheme Sheet

Phase 5 Year 1 Grapheme Sheet

Capital Letter Formation Sheet

Everybody Read! Information Leaflet

50 Recommended Reads

Click on the images to see a list of 50 recommended books for each year group:

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