School of Thought
Boosting Reading @ LNPS
with Rosemary and Kim
We have many prolific, dedicated readers at Lockleys North, students and staff alike. Whilst on yard duty just last week, one student was having a chat withme and asked if I would like to hear him list the titles of the Captain Underpants series in order - all eleven of them! Another was able to tell me exactly which books we are missing in Tirkandi (our library) in the Funny Kid series and told me it would be wise to purchase them as he found them highly entertaining. These conversations swell the hearts of teachers (and maybe test our patience at about book 9 in the listing scenario!) as we know how vital reading is to learning across all curriculum areas and life in general.
The benefits of being a powerful reader are many with academic achievement closely linked to students’ reading ability and vocabulary. As such, we have a 2019-2021 goal at LNPS to increase student achievement in reading R-7.
In a recent national survey of children aged 6-17, The Australian Kids & Family Reading Report, there were many interesting findings regarding children’s reading habits including:
More than half of children aged 6–17 (58%) believe reading books for fun is extremely or very important and 60% of kids also say they love reading books for fun or like it a lot.
Just over one-third of children aged 6–17 (37%) report they are frequent readers, with kids aged 6–8 being the most likely to read 5–7 days a week.
As children grow older, reading competes with many screen-related activities, and 75% of parents with kids aged 6–17 agree: “I wish my child would do more things that did not involve screentime.”
Across ages, three-quarters of children (76%) say they know they should read more books for fun; a similar number of parents (78%) wish their child would read more books for fun.
A great infographic summarising the findings can be found here.
Many of our students have related that they spend time on screens shortly before bed and have been shocked to learn that this can hamper the quality of their sleep. We are encouraging them to exchange their screen for a book instead and unwind through the interaction with rich language of stories and information. Your enthusiastic support in making this shift will support your child to grow as a frequent reader.
The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a great opportunity to promote the reading of quality children’s literature. All students at LNPS take part in the challenge and in 2019 our goal is for 100% of our students to complete the challenge, leading to ongoing reading for life.
See below for further references about the value of reading and keep connected for further School of Thought articles regarding our learning goals.
The Academic Value of Bedtime Reading
The Value of Reading Can’t be Calculated by a Standardised Test