Reading Together® at New River Primary School

The following 1 July 2020 comments are sourced from this New River Primary School Facebook page:

Reading Together®
Kia ora whānau,
Next term we will be running the Reading Together® workshops. Reading Together® enables parents and whānau to learn specific ways of helping with reading at home. It is a programme comprising of 4 workshops over 7 weeks, with each workshop lasting 1 hour and 15 minutes. ... We highly recommend this programme to all parents who've not yet completed the course and especially to our new families.

2019

Extracts from a New River Primary School letter (22 July 2019) on their Facebook page, available here:

New River Primary is involved in a home school partnership called Reading Together®. This programme supports parents and caregivers along with their teachers to help children become better and more confident readers.

Reading Together® works because Workshop Leaders provide you with informed support by:

• explaining, demonstrating and discussing appropriate ways of helping with reading at home
• modelling ways of interacting which promote children's literacy and social skills.

2012

The Invercargill Eye has published an article titled 'Family reading a boost to learning too' (11 Oct 2012, p.7). Extracts from the article follow:

Children enjoying homework time?
It sounds too good to be true but not for the students at New River Primary School who have been taking part in a reading programme. ...
New River Primary School deputy principal Lorraine Dallas said the school received funding from the Ministry of Education and had only started the [Reading Together®] programme last term.
However, feedback from parents had been so good that the school would use the programme for another round in 2013, she said.
"We've lots of positive feedback from parents ... we've started to see more of a positive attitude [in the child's reading]."
Mrs Dallas said some parents had learnt patience, and others noticed homework was more enjoyable for the child.
"Some [children] think it's more fun reading together ... They talk more about the book before and after reading, they're gaining confidence." ...
Mrs Dallas said the school librarian had enjoyed helping the children and parents and had even set up a mini-library where parents could borrow books for their children.
It was not just the parents and children who enjoyed the programme, she said.
"The school staff are going out of their way to help with it."