Reading at Walford Nursery & Primary School

INTENT

At Walford Nursery & Primary School, we aim to foster in all of our children a love of books so that they become readers for life.  We aim for ALL our children to become confident, fluent readers as well as nourishing and developing their personal preferences to foster a lifelong love of reading. 

Children are taught to read by a variety of methods including phonics, learning key words and using meaning.  Their progress is carefully monitored and a wide range of books (fiction and non-fiction) make up our guided and individual reading schemes.  We follow the Read, Write, Inclusive programme and Write Stuff approach which include a rich range of texts.

At Walford Nursery & Primary School, children will:

• read with fluency, accuracy and understanding, using a range of strategies;
• read for information and enjoyment;
• understand, interpret and appreciate literary and non-fiction texts.

IMPLEMENTATION

Guided Reading
 

At Walford Nursery & Primary School, we value guided reading as a means of improving reading skills, comprehension skills and group discussion.  In Key Stage 2, we use the acronym VIPERS to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the National Curriculum.  VIPERS stands for:

Vocabulary

Inference

Prediction

Explanation

Retrieval

Summarise

By using the VIPERS acronym, we ensure that teachers ask, and students are familiar with, a range of comprehension questions.  They allow teachers to track the type of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allows for targeted questioning.

Class Reader

Throughout the school, children have the opportunity to hear an adult read aloud to them every day for at least 10 minutes. This is often their class teacher but the school ensures that they also hear stories from a wide range of other staff each year.

School Library

We are very lucky to have a well-resourced and efficiently run library at Walford Nursery & Primary School.  The borrowing section of our library is run by Librarians in Year 6.   We also have an extensive reference section which children can use for independent research during or outside lesson time.  Our librarians help children to select books and assist in fostering a love of books across the school.

Class Libraries

Our class libraries are well-resourced and provide children with access to a wide range of high quality fiction and non-fiction texts linked to topics covered in each year group. 

Accelerated Reader

We are excited to introduce Accelerated Reader, a computer program that helps teachers manage and monitor children’s independent reading practice. 

Children in Key Stage Two select a book at their own level and read it at their own pace. When finished, children take a short quiz on the computer. Passing the quiz is an indication that children understand what was read. Accelerated Reader gives children and teachers feedback based on the quiz results, which the teacher then uses to help set targets and direct ongoing reading practice. 

Children using Accelerated Reader choose their own books to read, rather than having one assigned to them. This makes reading a much more enjoyable experience as they can choose books that are interesting to them. Teachers help children to choose books at an appropriate readability level that are challenging without being frustrating, ensuring that children can pass the quiz and experience success. 

myON

At Walford Nursery & Primary School, all children have access to digital books through the myON portal.  myON is a student-centered, personalized digital library that gives students access to more than 7,000 enhanced digital books in the core collection. Titles are dynamically matched to each individual student’s interests, grade and reading level. Combined with a suite of close reading tools and embedded supports, myON fosters student engagement and achievement.

IMPACT

Our Reading curriculum facilitates sequential learning and long-term progression of knowledge and skills. Teaching and learning methods provide regular opportunities to recap acquired knowledge through high quality questioning, discussion, modelling and explaining to aid retrieval at the beginning and end of a lesson or unit. Regular practise of skills will provide children with the confidence to apply these in a range of independent situations whereby they have the chance to show what they have internalised. The range of reading situations we provide will enable all children to alter their long term memory and know more, remember more and be able to do more as readers.

Read, Write, Inclusive

For information on Phonics at Walford Nursery and Primary School, please follow the link below to our Read Write Inclusive Page.

Reading Websites

Rewarding Reading in Action at Walford Nursery and Primary School