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This week in College we have been celebrating Book Week and our Primary School pupils have enjoyed the company of our visiting author Toby Glover, who is well known for his Mark Shark series.
This week in College we have been celebrating Book Week and our Primary School pupils have enjoyed the company of our visiting author Toby Glover, who is well known for his Mark Shark series.
The importance of reading for child development is well known and reading with your child has been shown time and again (and by numerous peer-reviewed studies) to have a significant positive impact on their future academic success. A recent report demonstrated a strong correlation between the number of books in an individual’s childhood home and their future performance in formal examinations. In short, the more books children are exposed to growing up, the better they do academically. In fact, the number of books in a child’s home was shown to be a more accurate predictor of educational success than any other single factor including their parents’ qualifications or income.
Reading with your children helps them to develop a love of learning for its own sake, an interest in the world around them and a passion for oracy and storytelling. It will help them to develop literacy and curiosity. It will also help them to develop effective routines and allow you to spend quality time with them away from the numerous distractions of the digital age. If English is not your child’s first language, early exposure to English in books can be extremely helpful, but reading with them in your native language is also hugely important.
As children get older and read independently, many parents stop reading with them, however I would always recommend that this continues. Try reading more challenging books than their reading level would permit them to read themselves. This will help them to stretch themselves and increase their working vocabulary. It will also allow you to discuss with your child particular issues or themes which may be challenging to address as a parent. This could include social challenges they are facing with their friendship group, stresses related to academic pressure, feelings of loss associated with a recent relocation, or the sadness associated with missing friends who have moved away.
As children get older still, devoting time to sharing feedback on books or articles you have read together or separately will help them to answer open questions and structure feedback. Discussing articles and opinion pieces from the newspaper will help them to construct and scrutinise an argument, and form views and opinions on important issues of the day. It will help them to develop diplomacy; to recognise, accept and acknowledge the views of others; to debate, to synthesise and to discuss. However the global economy of the future changes, these skills are likely to be increasingly important.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
David Tongue
Principal
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