Helping Your Child Develop Reading, Writing and Communication
Skills.
Reading, writing and communication skills are vitally important for you child’s learning.
They are not only the foundation for learning all subjects at school but are the skills we use
every day in the workplace.
This is the first newsletter that begins to outline some of the ways you can help your child
with their reading, writing and communication skills and help them on their learning journey, through their education at school, college and into the adult world.
Here are some ways that you, as parents, can help your child improve these vital skills.
1.
Make sure your child has a quiet, comfortable place at home to do their homework
and to study. Set aside a specific time each day for you child to do their homework or
to read quietly. Daily reading builds reading stamina.
2.
Talking to your child about their homework can help them think through what they
need to do and give them ideas for their writing.
3.
Read through their written work, encouraging them to check for accuracy. Are their
ideas clear? Is the spelling, punctuation and grammar accurate? Did they miss out any
words? Should any words be changed?
4.
Encourage your child to visit the Aquinas Resource Centre, where our knowledgeable
librarians can assist with choosing fiction and non-fiction books and there are also
useful reference books as well as magazines to read.
5.
Encourage you child to join the local library. Library staff can recommend books to develop reading for pleasure as well as help with homework projects. During school holidays libraries often hold fun activities which promote reading schools.
6.
Encourage your child to take part in the wide range of literacy activities that are
planned throughout the school year.
7.
Join in special events, such as World Book Day or The Carnegie Book Award.
8.
Remind your child about presentation and handwriting. If their handwriting and organisation makes their work hard to read, they will not communicate their ideas
effectively.
HELPING WITH SPELLING: Using Look , Say, Cover, Write, Check
The most effective way to learn spellings is to use the ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’
method. This will be the method your child will have learned in primary school. It uses
sight, sound and movement to help your child learn.

Step 1: Look: the word should be looked at carefully, not just glanced at. Children
should look at the shape of the word so it forms a picture in their mind. They can look
for letter strings they know well, e.g ‘ight’, ‘ould’ or double letters which make this
word different to others.

Step 2: Say: now focus on the way the word sounds. Can you ‘spellspeak’ the word
splitting it into chunks, e.g. Wed/nes/day? Are there letter patterns you know have a
special sound, e.g. ‘ph’ as in elephant?

Step 3: Cover: once they are ready to try the spelling, cover the word up. Can they
‘see’ the picture in their mind?

Step 4: Write: the spelling is written out, remembering the picture and sounds from
‘looking’ and ‘saying’ in steps 1 and 2.

Step 5: Check: check back to see if it has been written correctly. If not, try again.
Each spelling should be practiced for a few minutes per night...little and often. A spelling is
only really secure in someone’s memory when it has been correctly written down on at
least 3 separate occasions, especially if it is a word which has been mis-spelt for a long
time.
The Aquinas Resource Centre.
World Book Day - Make a space on your bookshelf for the free books coming your way!
World Book Day is just around the corner on 7th March, and as always we shall be distributing vouchers for a free book from a special collection, or £1 off any other book over
£2.99 at your favourite booksellers. Take a look at www.worldbookday.com for all the details.
Stan Lee Excelsior Award – Stan Lee is the Godfather of Modern Comics and the cocreator of Spider Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Hulk to name a few! He gave
his blessing to this new reading award which is running in school until July with other
schools across the country. The shortlist has two superhero titles on it (Wonder Woman
and Supergirl), two historical fiction titles (Sweeney Todd and Peter Panzerfaust), two science fictions (Strontium Dog and X-O Manowar, which also has historical themes) and two
more humorous titles (Soul Eater Not! and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is also
quite dark in places). Something there for everyone I think.
Ms. Merrick