Reading

Igniting a love for reading in your students

Igniting a love for reading can be quite tricky with young people. Often parents ask teachers for help in getting their child to become a ‘reader’ after many attempts, and that’s not without them trying very hard. When I was growing up, computers were so slow that by the… Read More

How to develop brilliant reading at KS3

Reading is in vogue at the moment – and rightly so! Several factors have raised the priority of reading in schools. The number of students reading at home has slowly dwindled as the number of distractions has dramatically increased. Alongside this, the GCSE changes have also increased KS3 reading demand… Read More

How to develop brilliant reading at KS3

Reading is in vogue at the moment – and rightly so! Several factors have raised the priority of reading in schools. The number of students reading at home has slowly dwindled as the number of distractions has dramatically increased. Alongside this, the GCSE changes have also increased KS3 reading demand… Read More

Exploring Childhood in Hard Times

‘If we can only preserve ourselves from growing up, we shall never grow old and the young may love us to the last,’ declared Dickens.  This call to protect the magic and wonder of childhood concluded his New Year’s Day essay, published in his magazine Household Words, almost exactly a… Read More

Supporting Reluctant Readers

Reluctant readers are a small but significant group of children who do not yet read for pleasure. They are children who can read, but instead avoid or choose not to read. While not exclusively boys, many are, and finding ways to guide them towards reading as a pleasurable activity is… Read More

Helping KS2 Children With Reading At Home

Literacy expert Gill Matthews, shares some simple, enjoyable ideas for how parents can support their child’s reading comprehension and development at home. You may find this helpful to share with your pupils’ parents or you can adapt the ideas for your home learning plan. Once your child is able to… Read More

Helping KS1 Children With Reading At Home

Literacy expert Gill Matthews, shares some simple, enjoyable ideas for how parents can support their child’s reading comprehension and development at home. You may find this helpful to share with your pupils’ parents or you can adapt the ideas for your home learning plan. Over 300 Collins Big Cat… Read More

Simple, fun ideas to help children with phonics

Literacy expert Gill Matthews, shares some simple ideas for how to make phonics learning fun and enjoyable. You may find this helpful to share with your pupils’ parents or you can adapt the ideas for your home learning plan. Phonics is about learning the sounds that individual letters make: singly… Read More

Letters and Sounds and Challenging the More Able Child

Teachers often get training on how to support struggling children. They spend time planning and creating resources to support those children. However, teacher training can sometimes miss showing teachers how to challenge the most able children, and challenge (particularly in phonics teaching) is regularly a focus of attention in Ofsted… Read More

Closing the Word Gap

On the 27th of April Collins hosted the first Closing the Word Gap early reading conference. The conference was led by early reading experts Charlotte Raby and Emily Guille-Marrett who discussed comprehension, fluency, phonics and reading for pleasure. We’ve rounded up some of the key findings from the day below. The… Read More