Reading at ETPS

Reading at East Tilbury Primary School 
Here we are at the start of a new term and we are looking forward to another step up in your child’s reading progress and confidence. To ensure your children are reading at home, we will send out resources to help you support them. Your child will receive a new reading record and a banded reading book suited to their ability.  
As you may remember, the school also use a reading programme called Bug Club and we would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the ways you can help your child with their reading. 
What is Bug Club?  
Bug Club is a finely-levelled reading scheme, which ensures that all children can read books at exactly the right level for them. What’s more, there are online versions for every printed title and a personalised website for each child. 
What do the Book Band Levels mean?  
All school books and Bug Club books are graded into colour-coded Book Band levels, and within each level there is a carefully planned progression of books. This fine progression gives children plenty of opportunities to develop their reading skills. 
Using the online reading world  
If you have access to an internet connection, your child can enjoy reading Bug Club books online as well as in print. Each child has a unique homepage, and can log into it by following these steps:  
1. Go to www.activelearnprimary.co.uk  
2. Enter the login details.  
3. Your child’s homepage will appear. 
Reading a book online  
Your child’s teacher will regularly allocate new books to your child according to their reading level and these books will appear on their personal homepage. By now your child should be quite used to the online environment and the process of answering quiz questions and earning ‘Bug Points’. If you haven’t already, why not ask your child to show you the books they have already read and how many rewards they have accumulated. 
The reader  
Until they are fluent readers, younger children will benefit from reading aloud to you as often as possible. By the time they are in Years 5 or 6, many children prefer to read silently to themselves. Create quiet opportunities for them to do so, but then talk to them about the book they are reading.  
Sharing reading  
When sharing a book with your child, try to take opportunities to talk about the book – before, during and after reading.  

• Before reading: look at the book cover and talk about your child’s expectations.  
  
• While reading: support your child when unknown words need tackling and have a ‘meaning check’ every now and again to ensure your child understands the text.  
  
• After reading: talk about the book. What was it about? Did it match your child’s expectations? ​