With the holidays fast approaching I am sure everybody is thinking about how to keep children reading over the summer, so the theme this month is Humour! Funny books are the perfect way to engage children’s interest, which also makes them great read-alouds for an end of the day / end of the term classroom treat.

This month, our children’s book expert shares recommendations for books about dads. Perfect for celebrating Father’s Day.

There are many advantages to delivering reading lessons to the whole class. For example, pupil engagement and productivity can be increased as all pupils receive the attention of the expert in the room (you) for the full lesson; you can build on children’s knowledge and understanding by linking the texts you use to the wider curriculum, you can make ambitious text choices so that the whole class are exposed to age-appropriate texts and by involving the whole class you have the potential for wider discussions than if teaching children in small groups. But just as there are advantages to teaching the whole class together, so there are also some common challenges.

A selection of children’s books about the Olympics and sport to get you limbered up for the delayed 2020 Olympic games.

A round up of gorgeous children’s picture books to love and cherish.

Here at Primary English HQ we’ve been busy assembling some of the spookiest children’s books we know to help you and your class enjoy some ghoulishly good learning this Halloween. We have ghostly Guided Reading Packs, spooky sets of Starting Points and a wicked Whole Class Reading Sequence.

Our director, Rachel, takes you on a walk through guided reading.

Phonics, what's all the fuss about? Well to start with there's the ongoing debate between those who love it and those who don't - 'The Reading Wars'. All that hot air about over-reliance on one strategy; all those high frequency words that aren't phonically regular; oh and all those opinions about nonsense words. A quick Google search about phonics can open up a regular kan of wurms on this topic. The incredible thing is, when we wend our way round our schools this isn't the part of phonics that gets educators steamy under the collar.

In this article we recommend approaches to promote reading aloud in your school. Compiled by the members of our Teachers’ Reading Group, each and every recommendation has been tried and tested in real schools. If you’re looking to put reading at the heart of your school, we think our post will give you some great starting points.

Love it or loathe it, guided reading is probably the most well-used strategy for teaching reading in the UK. This popular post collects together a range of ideas to help you plan for meaningful guided reading sessions.

Advice and guidance on getting the most from hearing children read. Suitable for teachers and teaching assistants, this article offers quick and easy advice to spruce up your reading practice.

A hugely popular article signposting the suite of Primary English resources to support teaching and learning in reading. Planners, questions and prompts to support all aspects of the Content Domain for reading in KS1 and KS2.

I’m currently big on graphic organisers. It’s the way that graphic organisers make it easier for children to articulate their understanding that I particularly like. But also, it’s the way that a really good graphic organiser lends itself to a multitude of educational requirements. The Frayer model (sometimes called the Frayer diagram) is one such graphic organiser.

In which I outline a range of approaches to help you promote a love of reading in your school. An essential read for teachers looking to improve: reading aloud, children’s engagement with reading, staff knowledge and love of children’s literature and much, much more.

A short article introducing our hugely popular KS2 question prompts for the Reading Content Domains. A must-read article for teachers looking to develop questioning to meet the requirements of the KS2 SATs.

A quick round-up of advice to help you promote books and a love of reading in your school.

Phonics should be taught systematically and at pace. Whichever phase or section of your school’s phonics programme you are teaching you need to be aware of the assessment requirements and the amount of time allowed for getting children to that point.

Once upon an ordinary a day an ordinary teacher was looking for an ordinary book to read with her ordinary children during their ordinary guided reading lesson, when..she stumbled across a quite extraordinary book indeed: Once Upon an Ordinary School Day by Colin McNaughton and Satoshi Kitamura.