On Tuesday the news bulletins were filled with scenes of happy children stomping through woods and playing among nature. But this wasn’t because the bank holiday had been extended – no, these children should have been at school. It was the first ‘kids strike’ when thousands of parents deliberately kept their children away from school…
The Oxford English Dictionary defines comprehension as simply ‘the ability to understand something’. More specifically, the term ‘reading comprehension’ can be understood as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. It is a vital skill, which should form the basis of every child’s linguistic development. Without comprehension,…
The development of a child’s spelling and vocabulary skills is crucial for all aspects of learning across the curriculum. As I mentioned in my last blog post, knowing words, and being able to use them in context, not only helps your child to properly understand any questions they are being asked but also enables them…
A number of us may be familiar with the term ‘semantics’ when used in an idiomatic sense, i.e. ‘that’s just semantics’. This kind of statement is often used as a put-down when someone is trying to complicate an argument with a wordy explanation. However, in truth, semantics is a very important subject. Semantics is the…
In December, I posted a list of 15 classic book titles that I suggested children should add to their reading lists. A few parents have asked why their children should read these books, as an old fashioned style of writing can make it a little harder to read. My response is always the same. These…