Reading at home
Information for Parents – How it works:
Pupils take a STAR Reader online assessment at regular intervals throughout the year. This acts as a diagnostic test and allocates the children with a ‘range’ (ZPD) – a level from which the children can select books from. The level is selected to enable the children to work on skills that may have been highlighted as needing development from the STAR Reader assessment and to enable children to read a book fluently. Pupils are free to select any book they wish from this level / ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development), for example, if a child achieves a range of 3.3 – 4.4, they can select books that fall within this range – the colour isn’t necessarily the key indicator, it is the number on the inside cover of the book that is most important.
On completion of the book, children can use the book to help them answer the questions with the online quiz that can be accessed from school or at home – please allow children to complete the quiz independently as we will use scores to provide support where necessary. Our school benchmark for success is an 85% average. You can access their success rate from home.
Reading Engaged Time Per Day
The Accelerated Reader program calculates how long each pupil is reading for using the number of words in the book (word count) and the time taken between each quiz. Our target is for an engaged time of 30 minutes per day – some of this will be done in school but regular, quality home reading is essential in order for this important target to be reached.
This practice is essential for helping children become fluent readers – practice makes perfect!
The school can access a range of reports to monitor your child’s reading as well as listening to them reading aloud whenever possible. If you require any further update on your child or advice regarding reading at home please feel free to ask.
Success
To increase success rates, you can ask your child to tell you about the story they are reading and discuss any new vocabulary with them; you can ask your child to read to you or with you; and if you have a pet, they can read to them!
Above all, we want the children to enjoy reading. This is why they are the ones who are able to select their own book from within their range. Reading is such a vital life skill and children thrive when they enjoy it.
Year 3 Statutory Word Lists
Spelling and handwriting sheets to practice at home
In Year 3 we will learn the 3x, 4x and 8x tables, and recap 2x, 5x and 10x tables.
This includes the related division facts.
There are lots of tricks to times tables which can be found on You Tube.