Westwood Academy.
Bug Club Workshop – 28th January 2015.
Workshop objectives.
 To introduce Bug Club.
 To show you how to access Bug Club and the
different parts of the application.
 To look at how to use books in Bug Club and to
access the activities that support the progress of
the child as they read.
 To identify how you can help support your child
with their reading.
What is Bug Club?
 Bug Club is a finely-levelled reading scheme, which
ensures that all children can find reading material with
exactly the right challenge for them. What’s more, the
online e-books are found in a personalised website for
each child that links to other internet based learning that
the school is now using...
 Grammar and Spelling Bug supports children to develop
grammar and spelling skills through videos, with games to
practice their skills.
 Abacus is a numeracy scheme that supports learning in
school and at home across all the mathematical content
of the new curriculum.
Accessing Bug Club.
 It should work on all platforms! In school we use it
on Windows PC’s, Macs, Ipads and
Chromebooks successfully.
 Bug Club, Grammar and Spelling Bug and
Abacus are all accessed through the same site:
www.activelearnprimary.co.uk
 Each child has a user name, password and
requires a school code which is wect.
 Entering this information will open up each child’s
individual home page…
How you can support your
child with Bug Club.
 The reader: until they are fluent readers, younger children will benefit from reading aloud
to you as often as possible. By the time they are in Years 5 or 6, many children prefer to
read silently to themselves. Create quiet opportunities for them to do so, but then talk to
them about the book they are reading.
 Sharing reading: when sharing a book with your child, try to take opportunities to talk
about the book – before, during and after reading.
 Before reading: look at the book cover and talk about your child’s expectations. Is the
book likely to be fiction or non-fiction? Have you read other books together about these
characters or by this author? What does your child think the book is going to be about?
 While reading: support your child when unknown words need tackling: you can sound
them out, split them into syllables, or identify suffixes and prefixes. Remind your child to
listen to the words while reading them, to make sure that they make sense. Have a
‘meaning check’ every now and again to ensure that your child understands the text.
 After reading: talk about the book. What was it about? Did it match your child’s
expectations? Ask questions beginning with the words how and why to check that your
child has been able to read between the lines. Ask whether anything seemed puzzling.
Then ask your child to explain what the best and worst bits of the book were, and why.
And finally…
 This is a new initiative for Westwood Academy, so we are still
embedding it in our practice.
 BUT! Where Bug Club is used at other schools, uptake is variable
because reading is not given a high priority.
 At Westwood, READING HAS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY! Hence this
investment, hence a reading action plan to develop reading
over the next year, and hence 100% use of Bug Club each week
since introduction for every child in key stage 1 either at home or
at school. We intend to maintain this level of usage and spread
it to KS2! And all parents have a role in this – so thank you!
Any questions?