Reading

Two quite different children arrive under 'reading'. One cannot yet decode and is falling behind the class. The other decodes fluently, reads aloud beautifully at assembly, and has understood almost nothing.

For the first, the work is phonics, properly and systematically, without pretending it is a game. For the second the work is slower and stranger: stopping every few lines, asking what just happened, asking what a character wants, noticing when the text has quietly told you something.

I do not use reading schemes at home. We read real books, and I choose them for the child, which matters more than anything else on this page.

Children who say they hate reading have almost always been given the wrong books for two years.