“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” 
― Albert Einstein

In the course of my work with families, I am often asked by parents to provide book lists for their children.  I leap gladly at the opportunity to share my passion for reading and recommend books that I know will ignite their children’s imagination. Eleven years of facilitating book clubs for children has given me extensive insights into the spark that can be created when a student enjoys a book for the first time.

Despite my inward leap of joy when parents ask me for book lists, I am all too aware that the books I recommend are ones that they will give to the child to read on their own.  While of course we should be encouraging children to read in their spare time, parents rarely consider the lists I send as something they can share with their child by reading aloud.  

Of course, most parents recognise the importance of reading aloud to their child and do so from an early age.  However, once a child gets older and is spending more time reading to themselves, this practice often declines in frequency.  Yet there are so many benefits to continuing:

• Access to wider range of texts: Reading aloud is the perfect opportunity to introduce children to books they would not pick up themselves.  
• Modelling vocabulary:  Secondary reading requirements are vocabulary rich. This is great for children, but it can also be a challenge: “Secondary students encounter 10,000 or more new words per year in their content area texts” (Hougen, 2014). By reading aloud to children, we give them access to a wider range of vocabulary, and the opportunity to discuss its meaning.  
• Improves comprehension:  As children engage with the text being read to them, they gain a greater understanding than they would if they read it on their own.  The opportunity to discuss the texts enhances this comprehension.
• Encourages further independent reading: Children can be inspired to read the remaining books of a series on their own.
• Children enjoy it!  A study by Susan Ledger of Murdoch University which was published in the Australian Journal of Teacher Education (2018) found that children had a positive attitude toward being read to, reading aloud and reading independently. Reading aloud was generally considered a luxury or reward and a break from other curriculum areas or ‘real school work’. 

Albert Einstein certainly recognised the importance of continued reading aloud and its link with intelligence.  As teachers, I see it as a vital part of our role to shout the benefits loudly from roof tops, helping parents to see the value of continuing to read aloud to their child.  

Funniest online teaching moment of young children during lockdown? Child disappearing mid-lesson only to hear “Dad, I need you to wipe me!” over the still connected sound.  We can laugh at such online moments but on a more serious note, how many times have you got to the end of an online session feeling frustration over time wasted or lack of focus?  

There are some simple steps that can be taken by both the teacher and the parents to ensure online lessons with young children run smoothly.  

Teacher:

• Take a moment to connect with your student before work begins.  Connections are more difficult via a screen, and are not automatic.  Draw the student in by asking them about their day/week, relaying a funny anecdote or connecting over a shared experience (snow in London anyone?)  
• If you have an expectation of materials being to hand, ensure you have communicated this with the parent in plenty of time before the lesson.  Will the student need lined paper, coloured highlighters, a ruler, a printout of any text you are working through? 
• Ask the student at the beginning of the session if they have their homework, materials, etc ready.  Even if you have communicated to the parent ahead of time, check the materials are there and ready.  It is better to have a disrupted start to the lesson than have to stop part way through.  

Parent:

• Allow preparation and transition time before a lesson begins.  It is not fair or realistic to expect a young child who is pulled from the midst of an activity they are enjoying to be able to transition smoothly to an online lesson.  Ensure they know the lesson is coming up and that they have time to finish what they are doing.  
• Set up their work area with all of the materials the teacher has asked for and ensure there is space for them to work and see the computer/tablet at the same time.  
• Ask them to use the toilet before the lesson begins!
• Have a workspace that is free from distractions (kitchens are not ideal!)

Remember that this is a two way relationship between you as the teacher and the family you are working with.  Take some steps yourself, and ensure to help parents by communicating the ideas above to them.  After all, both teacher and parent have the same aim – smooth running, focused lessons in which the child is able to progress! 

This week, as offers are being received for entry into schools in September, I had cause to stop and reflect on two students in particular.  Both students have received offers from highly selective schools.  But more than a year ago, when I carried out assessments on these students, my judgement that they were capable of receiving offers from their schools of choice was met with a degree of doubt by other professionals.  
 
In my work as an educational consultant, I have often come across the view that the purpose of an assessment is to determine school suitability and the future trajectory of a student’s education.  I find this such a limiting concept.  I like to think of students as having limitless potential that can be unlocked by those who work with them.  
 
Research supports the idea that the idea children can and do change with the right support and encouragement.  Assessment should be used as a tool to determine current attainment levels against goals, and then used to guide and inform the learning process.  This requires designing assessments that go beyond simply gauging whether a correct or incorrect answer has been achieved.
 
For my two students more than a year ago, if I had accepted the view that they were too far behind compared to their peers to have success on the 7+ exams, I would have closed that door for them and limited their potential.  Instead, these students were nurtured through a learning journey that allowed then not only to succeed but to thrive.