On 25 November 2025, LEH Foshan’s “Reading in the Prep School” parent workshop concluded successfully, with many parents in attendance. Their strong turnout highlighted the importance of this topic for families and reflected a clear desire to support their children’s learning at home. Key activities included a guided reading demonstration and practical discussions on supporting reading at home, equipping parents with useful strategies. Aligned with the school’s ongoing effort to increase parent engagement in school life, the workshop helped build transparent home-school communication, allowing parents to see the expertise behind each lesson and feel more connected to their child’s learning journey.
Prep School’s Reading Strategy
At the heart of the Prep School's approach to nurturing a love of reading is a simple but powerful idea: reading forms the foundation of who we are intellectually. The aim is to inspire students to transition from merely completing assigned readings to exploring books on their own. They are encouraged to discover genres, time periods, and authors that truly speak to their interests. This love for reading grows as students start to shape their own intellectual paths, empowered by the tools and confidence the school has given them.
To engage every child in reading, teachers employ strategies such as modelling enthusiasm for reading, allowing students to select library books that align with their interests, using guided-levelled reading materials tailored to comfortable yet challenging levels, and incorporating pre-reading activities to enhance fluency. Effective interactive practices include the “Drop Everything and Read (DEAR)” initiative, 10 minutes of uninterrupted reading prompted by a school bell, and Year 6’s Ancient Egypt-themed text-based research, where students utilize library resources to explore the ancient civilization.
Teachers also demonstrate expressive daily reading, showing how punctuation and tone shape stories, and incorporate choral reading to foster students’ confidence. Supported by phonics-savvy teaching assistants and four weekly supplementary English sessions, this approach has yielded remarkable progress, many students have advanced two book bands, meeting their expected reading age levels.
Outside of the classroom, parents can foster a love of reading by making their own reading visible, letting children see them reading for pleasure and talking casually about what they’re reading, and demonstrating the practical value of reading, such as connecting it to their work or daily decisions.
The guided reading demonstration at the workshop exemplified the school’s home-school collaboration approach: rather than merely explaining teaching methods to parents, it showcased the step-by-step instructional process. This transparent approach fosters trust and empowers parents to feel more confident in their child’s learning journey.
The Prep School’s reading approach has helped students become engaged readers. For Terms 2 and 3, we will hold more activities including favourite book cover redesign competition. The school will also shift from “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn” to boost independence, with support tailored to ongoing assessments. We believe this shift will ensure every child thrives as they move from mastering reading skills to using reading as a tool for discovery.
繁体
