What advice can you give about supporting our more vulnerable children who might not get support with reading at home?

Make reading fun and joyous in school for the children especially the vulnerable ones. 

Little Wandle believes that the more that families understand why reading matters, the better!

Supporting parents to understand phonics and reading is more effective in the long term and contributes to children’s reading progress.

As professionals, we also need to support our more vulnerable children with extra practice in school especially if we know that, through no fault of their own, they won’t be able to practise reading at home. Make it a special and precious experience for them.

Finally, think of ways to support vulnerable families like:

Organise family workshop

• Little Wandle has created presentations and handouts for each stage of children’s phonics learning.
• Ensure a high uptake of attendees at your workshop by inviting families to watch a phonics lesson first. Then you will have a captive audience to speak to afterwards! Some schools have opened a Reading Café with tea, coffee and treats to create a safe place for families to come and hear these crucial messages.