Read an article together from the online student newspaper ‘The Day’ (there's a button on the home page) and then discuss it together.

The newspaper covers a wide range of topics to choose from.

Maybe you could even turn an article into your own news report! Feel free to email the video to your English teacher for extra ClassCharts points.

Listen along as a family to the stories in the English Google Classroom. Try pausing and predicting what will happen next. For fun, try creating/writing a different story ending together, adding your own character, or even writing the sequel!

Check out more free audiobooks at stories.audible.com, scholastic.com and harpercollinschildren'sbooks.co.uk. Once you’ve finished a book, you could write a book review, or if you’re in Year 7 or 8, you could complete an Accelerated Reader quiz.

Hold a family summer reading challenge. You could challenge each member of your family to read a number of pages, chapters or even books. Keep a chart of how much each person is reading and set a deadline to have read so much by that date. You could even set a family goal - and reward yourselves with something like a family picnic or film night when you complete it.

As a family, learn a new ‘word of the day’ by searching dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day. Try and get everybody in your home to use each new word accurately, at least 3 times a day. Try and recall the new words you’ve learnt previously too. You could test each other!

If you are an artistic family, or your child is a reluctant reader, try reading and creating your own comic book stories together. You’ll find some great examples at readallcomics.com. You can find a handy template for creating your own comic at wordsforlife.org.uk/comics/make-comic-strip.

Keep a written family diary of what life is like at the moment. Everyone can contribute and write about their unique experiences and feelings about living in these unprecedented times. Add illustrations and newspaper clippings if you’d like. It’ll be so interesting to look back upon your diary in years to come!

Be inspired by everyday scenarios for reading and writing. Examples could include baking/cooking together - reading the instructions aloud, reading the map whilst driving and writing a shopping list.

Play a game that promotes literacy. Examples include Scrabble, Hedbanz, Top Trumps and Boggle. You can also find online games at topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/spelling-and-grammar, educationquizzes.com/ks3/english and www.funenglishgames.com/.

Children learn and are inspired by what they see and hear, so literacy is a job for the whole family to practice: read for pleasure, listen carefully, write and speak with confidence. And remember, practice makes perfect!

Discuss its meaning and what you liked (or didn’t like) about it. You can find many examples of children’s poetry at poetryfoundation.org/learn/children, childrens.poetryarchive.org and poets.org/poetry-teens. You could try writing your own poetry together too. Share your own poetry with your English teacher for extra ClassCharts points!