Supporting Literacy & Numeracy

Supporting your daughter's literacy by experience and example

Below is a list of activities that you as a parent can do to support your daughter in her literacy journey. This list may give you some ideas about how you can support your daughter, but there are many others that you might be able to think of!

Model reading by reading books and other material yourself in front of your daughter. All children copy adults who are important to them; if your daughter sees that you and other adults in her life value reading then she will as well.
Let your daughter choose what she wants to read, rather than trying to make her read what you think she should.
Talk with your daughter about why she enjoys reading what she has chosen.
Join your local library and visit with your daughter to borrow books. You can also spend time in the library, relaxing in an environment dedicated to reading.
Encourage your child to read magazines, comics, newspapers, blogs and the internet as well as books. This will help her to learn about different styles of writing, used for different purposes.
Talk to your child about books or magazines that you haven’t enjoyed, as well as those you love. Doing this will help your daughter to learn to critically analyse and assess what she is reading herself.
Make time to read together as often as you can, e.g. sitting next to or near each other. This will improve your daughter's literacy levels but equally important, it is a way of spending quality time together, silently enjoying each other’s company in a shared activity.
Buy books as presents. When a child receives a present, they also receive the message that whatever they have been given is seen as valuable and important by the giver.
Read the news, either online or in a paper format, with your daughter and discuss the issues and events. Your daughter will develop her thinking skills and learn to understand viewpoints which may be different to her own as well as keeping up to date with what is happening in the world.
Remember that your daughter is reading when she is looking at bus/ train timetables, menus, instructions, TV guides, shop names and the internet. Remind your daughter that reading does not just mean “books” but is actually a skill used throughout life.
Ask your child to write lists for shopping and then locate the items in shops. Your daughter will learn the importance of storing and retrieving information in written format, a form of “permanent memory”.
Bake or cook together following a recipe; you might want to ask an older relative or friend to send you details about their signature dish! This enables your daughter to see how language and literacy are crucial in the sharing of information, as well as being great fun!
Read to your daughter, showing her that reading is a pleasurable activity that can be shared with people who care about each other.

Our aim; to increase your daughter’s’ individual literacy level.

All students are expected to bring a book to read with them every day. All lessons start with a few minutes given over to reading, so having a suitable book available is very important. If need be, your daughter can borrow a book from her form “book box” or one can be posted home, as the school library is currently closed.

Key Stage 3 students, and the adults teaching them, take part in the DEAR, (Drop Everything And Read), initiative. Each day everyone stops whatever they are doing to enjoy twenty minutes reading a book of their choice. In addition to this, some students will have individual literacy support with Teaching Assistants, Paired Reading Buddies or as part of a group. Year 7 students have a Reading Record; as a parent. Please sign this document and discuss with your daughter what she has been reading. You are one of her most important role models and your input will encourage her to value reading.

Other Role Models are important and staff make sure that students know that they too spend time reading for pleasure. Each week a member of the Leadership Team reads aloud to Year 7 and videos of staff reading can be viewed on the website.

Literacy is not just reading! Some students may prefer listening to podcasts rather than reading texts, and this is another excellent method of developing literacy skills.

Our aim; to increase literacy across and within all subject areas

All subject areas embed literacy into what they do and how they teach your daughter. The Word of the Week is displayed in the “News” section of the website’s Home Page. Any time your daughter uses this week’s word, appropriately, in a lesson she can claim an Achievement Point from her teacher; that’s potentially 25 points a week!

These are just some of the ways we at Bordesley Green Girls’ School and Sixth Form are promoting and developing the vital literacy skills your daughter needs to succeed in education and later life.