reading

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go” – Dr Seuss

The teaching of reading is a top priority for our curriculum as it is integral to our pupils' education. We strive to foster a lifelong love of reading by balancing learning to read with enjoyment of books and other texts. Giving our children access to a range of high quality and diverse texts is imperative. The texts that are used in English lessons, guided reading sessions and across the curriculum are carefully mapped and regularly reviewed.

Early Reading

Early reading is supported through the systematic teaching of phonics using the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds (revised) programme. More information can be found about this on the Phonics page

Reading Comprehension

Once children are adept at word reading, additional skills and opportunities are needed for children to achieve the goal of being a well-rounded reader - namely comprehension.

As Scarborough's Reading Rope shows, there are many strands that weave together and make a skilled reader:

Reading and language comprehension is developed through a combination of modelled, shared, guided, individual and independent reading. In whole class and small group sessions teachers use a range of high quality texts and focused skill teaching. Children read high quality fiction and non-fiction texts as well as poetry. Where possible there are cross curricular links.

Reading lessons
Reading lessons happen daily in every class. In EYFS and Year 1 they focus on developing the children’s word reading, fluency and vocabulary. Reading comprehension happens more informally through story time and shared texts as well as planned English lessons. From Year 2 through to Year 6 daily guided reading lessons develop and build on pupils' reading skills of decoding and comprehension.

VIPERS
Across our school we use the reading VIPERS. VIPERS is an acronym which highlights the key reading skills that form part of the reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.

Key Stage 1 VIPERS
All of the VIPERS for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 are the same, apart from the S. In Key Stage 1 the S stands for Sequence

Key Stage 2 VIPERS
In Key Stage 2 the S stands for Summarise

Story time
All classes enjoy a daily class story. Younger children enjoy a range of picture books, progressing onto early chapter books, while longer texts are usually used in the older classes.

Library visits
Our school library is a welcoming environment that children enjoy visiting on a weekly basis. There are a range of picture books, fiction and nonfiction texts as well as magazines and newspapers. School librarians, alongside parent volunteers, help to organise and maintain our library.

Reading Scrapbooks
Every class has a reading scrapbook. Children volunteer to take their class scrapbook home on a Friday, and return it the following week. They choose to share a book they have enjoyed and would recommend to their peers. 

Reading Leader -  Mrs Rachel Smith

Reading Link Governor - Mrs Katie Moore

Part of the Languages team.