Jo Klein 

Head of Curriculum

The Year of Reading - Supporting your child’s reading journey

You might start to notice or hear your child talk about some changes in the way reading is being taught at school. That’s because our school is aligning with the Department’s new Reading Position Statement (PDF, 2MB) This guide helps teachers use the most effective ways to teach reading, based on up-to-date research from the Effective Teaching of Reading Literature Review.

The goal is to support all students as they develop strong reading skills, not just in English, but across all subjects and year levels. In the coming weeks, our newsletter will include more information about how teachers, families, and students can work together to support reading both at school and at home. We’re excited to partner with you on this important journey!

How Do Children Learn to Read?

Did you know that learning to read is not something we’re born knowing how to do? It takes step-by-step teaching, regular practice, and support both at school and at home.

Reading involves two key skills:

• Decoding – sounding out and reading the words on the page.
• Comprehension – understanding what those words mean.

At Baringa we use a systematic synthetic phonics program to teach letter- sound correspondences in carefully sequenced order through our InitiaLit program. To support this learning, younger students may bring home decodable books. These books only include the letter-sound patterns they've already been taught. As their confident grows, children progress to reading authentic texts that build both their word recognition and language comprehension and may include texts from across curriculum areas.

Fluency Pairs

In Term one all classes introduced a new reading practice called fluency pairs. Reading fluency refers to the ability to read with accuracy, appropriate speed, expression, and phrasing. It is the result of strong foundational reading skills, including decoding, phonemic awareness (such as blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds), vocabulary, syntax and grammar, and background knowledge. Fluency plays a critical role in reading comprehension, as fluent readers are generally better able to understand and engage with the texts they read.

To support the development of fluency, students engage in repeated reading activities at the word, phrase, sentence, and full-text levels. As part of our daily Fluency Pairs routine, students take turns reading aloud to a peer or teacher using a method known as echo reading. In this strategy, one reader models fluent reading of a passage, and the other repeats it, mimicking the pacing, expression, and phrasing. This practice helps reinforce reading skills and build confidence in a supportive, collaborative environment.

How Can You Help Support Reading at Home?

• Listen to your child read aloud. As your child reads, you may notice there are words they can read automatically, while other words will need to be ‘sounded out’. When your child comes to a word they do not automatically know, you can help them by saying: ‘Say the sounds as you point to the letters. Now, blend the sounds and read the word.’ For example: for the word ‘hen’, point to the letters and provide the sounds, /h/ /e/ /n/, then blend the sounds to read ‘hen’.
• Read aloud to your child often. This helps them hear new words, understand more complex ideas, and enjoy stories they can’t yet read themselves. Pause while reading and take the time to discuss details in the story can support your child’s oral language development. The conversation might focus on the storyline, such as characters or where the story takes place; it may focus on similar experiences the child has had to those that happened in the book; it may focus on specific words; aspects of print; or concepts that are new to the child.
• Try echo reading. You read a line or page first, then your child repeats it.

It’s normal for new readers to read slowly at first. With regular practice and support, their reading skills and confidence will grow!

Stay tuned — over the next few newsletters, we’ll be sharing more ways families and teachers can work together to help every child become a successful reader.