Literacy

John Scollo

Reading

Welcome back to Term 1! I hope you enjoyed a refreshing break and are ready for the year ahead.

Let’s make reading a priority in 2026 by building simple, joyful reading habits at home — because just a few minutes each day can make a powerful difference to your child’s confidence, comprehension and love of learning. 

Here are some simple ways you can support your child’s reading and language development at home:

• reading aloud daily and using funny voices, asking “What might happen next?” or “Which part was your favourite and why?”

• talking about new words you notice in books or in everyday life and using them in sentences together (e.g. fast, quick, speedy)

• encouraging storytelling by asking your child to retell stories using beginning, middle and end

• playing with sounds, such as finding words that start with the same sound (“many mice munched meatballs”) or breaking words into sounds (b-a-t)

• supporting writing at home, like writing shopping lists, cards, signs, or drawing and labelling pictures 

• having rich conversations, using questions that start with how and why, and encouraging full-sentence responses. 

To support your child at home, here are free websites you can go to that have resources such as books and games: 

We look forward to working together with you to grow confident readers and writers in 2026! 

John Scollo 

English Learning Specialist