Reading & Storytelling
This section of our website is designed to shares some of the wonderful recourses currently available to support your child’s reading development.
Reading aloud to children has been shown to improve reading, writing and communication skills, logical thinking and concentration, and general academic aptitude, as well as inspire a lifelong love of reading.
Storyline Online – this wonderful resource streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Kevin Costner and dozens more.
Storytime with Nick – films of well-loved stories read by Nick Cannon, a trained actor and teacher and a wonderful storyteller. New stories are added to this YouTube channel at 2pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and all the previous recordings are also available.
Phonics
DfE’s daily phonics lessons – Reception & Y1 – Keep your child’s phonics learning on track with the DfE’s daily lessons. During the summer term, you will be able to access for your child a daily phonics lesson introduced by celebrities, including children’s TV presenters, which adds an exciting addition to the lessons.
Three sets of lessons will be available each day:
10am – Reception – Suitable for children who can blend and read words such as ‘fish’, ‘chat’ and ‘rain’
10:30am – Y1 – Suitable for children who can confidently blend and read words such as ‘stamp’, ‘chair’ and ‘green’
11am – Learning to Blend – extra blending practise for children in Reception and Y1.
Further information can be found in this useful letter letter.
Oxford Owl – a useful guide to phonics for parents including tips, videos, audio guides and worksheets.
eBooks & recommended reading lists
The Book of Hopes– words and picture to comfort, inspire and entertain. 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.
BookTrust – a site with recommended booklists, categorised by age range and topic, including fiction and non-fiction. Family activities are included in the ‘Home Time’ section.
Oxford Owl – including eBooks from Read Write Inc., Oxford Reading Tree, and Project X Alien Adventures. All the eBooks are free to use, but you will need to register or log in. Please note these eBooks are best viewed on a computer, laptop, or tablet.
Richmond Library Service offer a digital library .
Love Reading 4 Kids – a site with recommended booklists, categorised by age range and topic, covering fiction and non-fiction. Suitable from early years foundation stage to key stage 2
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Storybook for Children on COVID-19 “My Hero is You” is lovely and in lots of languages.
Audio books
Audible – all children’s audiobooks and stories are available for free while schools are closed. They can be streamed on a desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. Suitable from early years foundation stage to key stage 2 and no registration required.
Elevenses with the World of David Walliams – one free audio book reading is available to listen to every day. You can also catch up on previous chapters and there are fun activities too. Suitable for key stage 2.
The Children’s Poetry Archive– an archive of spoken poetry recordings. Children can listen to poems read out loud. Poems for early years foundation stage to key stage 2.
Guidance for Parents and Carers
Guidance on ‘Reading Aloud with Children – 7 steps to make it magical’ to share with parents.
A simple information sheet on ‘Supporting Readers at Home‘ for parents/carers
