Literacy Support for Parents

The English department has created some resources to support parents and carers with their literacy. We hope you enjoy the videos and that you find them informative in providing you with a wide range of practical strategies and resources you can use to support both your own literacy and that of your child. As English teachers, we are incredibly passionate about creating an enriching and diverse curriculum which challenges our students in all year groups and we want to involve parents and carers in this process as much as possible and invite you to work with us in providing as many opportunities as possible for your child to have exposure to a wide range of texts and to regularly practise their literacy outside the classroom.

These sessions have been carefully planned so that they equip you with the information and skills needed to support your child’s written accuracy, clarity of communication and confidence when faced with unfamiliar texts. We recognise that the role of parents and carers is crucial in modelling reading, fostering an interest in books and supporting a child’s literacy and resilience. Together we hope that we can raise the profile of literacy and emphasise its importance as a life skill with considerable benefits for your child’s future.

Once you have completed the sessions, please complete the two short online quizzes and we will then send you a well-earned certificate to recognise and celebrate the time and effort you have put aside to participate in this course.

If you have any questions or would like some extra advice or support with this then please contact our Literacy Coordinator, Mrs Martin at smartin@halewoodacademy.co.uk.

The four sessions are as follows:

-Supporting your child’s literacy (introduces what literacy is and why it is important, covers a range of very useful resources you could use to support your child’s reading from home, how to foster a love of books and engage more reluctant readers)

-The use of literacy in everyday life (focuses on how to construct a formal letter considering ‘purpose, audience, language and layout’, how to use vocabulary choices for effect and how to use connectives and other types of language to support the accuracy, fluency and clarity of your writing)

-A tutorial exploring key reading skills and how to implement these (explains the main reading skills with clear examples, offers practical strategies you can use with your child to revise reading skills they will need to understand and evaluate a range of texts)

-Spelling, grammar and punctuation through reading (focuses on writing skills, written accuracy and how to avoid common SPAG mistakes or identify these in piece of work- this could help you to have productive conversations with your child regarding homework and revision)

You can access the online quizzes here:

Literacy skills in everyday life quiz

Supporting your child's literacy quiz

Literacy at Halewood Resources: - below are resources to support your child in reading

A quick reading skills tutorial

Reading at Halewood booklet

SPAG through reading

Supporting your child’s literacy session

The use of literacy in everyday life

For more information about literacy, why not visit the National Literacy Trust website via the link below for access to a vast array of useful resources:

National Literacy Trust

You may also find ‘The Day’ (free online student-friendly newspaper) incredibly useful. This website is regularly updated with short news articles relating to current affairs and each one comes with some comprehension tasks and video links to make it more interactive for students. These could serve as an excellent resource to use at home for regular reading comprehension practice and could help to prompt discussion about topics which appeal to the interests of your children. (Remember- shorter texts such as newspaper articles are a superb way to engage more reluctant readers!)

To access ‘The Day’, you can use the following link: https://theday.co.uk/

Thank you for in advance for your support and participation! It is only with your help that we stand a chance in guaranteeing literacy its rightful place as a priority and responsibility of everyone.

Mrs Martin,

(English Teacher and Literacy Co-ordinator at Halewood Academy)

Resource 1 - Reading skills - Silence of the lambs