School Readiness

Reading together long before reading alone

5 January 2026 · 3 min read

Children who associate books with warmth, laughter and closeness arrive at formal reading wanting to succeed at it. That motivation carries them through the hard, technical part.

Reread favourites without guilt. Repetition builds the sense that text is stable and predictable, which is the foundation of decoding.

Talk around the book as much as through it. Ask what might happen next, why a character looked sad, what you would have done.

Ten unhurried minutes a day does more than an hour of reluctant practice at the weekend.

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