English: Reading

“The more you read, the more things you’ll know, the more you learn, the more places you’ll go”

Dr Suess
 

Early Reading

At Harris Primary Academy Kenley our aim is for all children to become fluent, confident readers. Reading will give your child the tools to become an independent life-long learner. We achieve this by:

·Teaching reading using Read Write Inc. 

·Reading a range of storybooks daily to encourage a love of reading.

Phonics

Click here to see how we teach Phonics at HPAK.

KS1 Reading

Children are taught to decode text and read for meaning through a number of opportunities during their day to day life at school. From Reception to Year 1 all children learn to decode text through phonics. From Year 2, children are able to hone their comprehension and inference skills through daily skills lessons. 

Children should read at home for fifteen to twenty minutes a day. Children's reading at home should be recorded on their 'Read the Rainbow' bookmark. Certificates and prizes are awarded for children's completion of their bookmarks. Children on the phonics programme are allocated (and take home) colour banded books of different reading skills levels as they work through the school. One of these colour banded books is the one studied in phonics lessons and the second is a linked text with similar content/characters. When children finish the phonics programme, they can choose from a wide range of age appropriate books to take home and read, this is further supplemented by a levelled text for children who understand phonics. Children are also encouraged to read for pleasure and access a wider range of age appropriate books from their year group's selection. 

KS2 Reading

Children in Key Stage 2 have a daily reading lesson. These not only teach vital reading skills and comprehension awareness using VIPERS but also encourage a love of reading and develop children's fluency in reading increasingly complex texts. The vast majority of children in Key Stage 2 will already be competent with their phonics knowledge. However, if children require additional support in this area, for example if they join the academy with English as an Additional Language, then this support will follow our scheme of phonics Read Write Inc.

Children should read at home for twenty or thirty minutes a day. Children in Years 3-6 bring home a levelled text at the appropriate stage for their reading ability, an age appropriate book that they have chosen from the year group's selection and a reading challenge text. Each year group has a reading challenge with a selection of texts that we encourage children to complete during their time in that year. Children's reading at home should be recorded on their 'Read the Rainbow' bookmark. Certificates and prizes are awarded for children's completion of their bookmarks.

What are Vipers?

VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum.  They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts.

VIPERS stands for

Vocabulary

Inference

Prediction

Explanation

Retrieval

Sequence or Summarise

The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc.  As such, VIPERS is not a reading scheme but rather a method of ensuring that teachers ask, and students are familiar with, a range of questions.  They allow the teacher to track the type of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allows for targeted questioning afterwards.

Reading in Class

All teachers at Harris Primary Academy Kenley read to their classes aloud for 15 minutes each day. This models a love of reading and helps all children develop a connection with a shared class text.

Reading at Home

All children at Harris Primary Academy Kenley are expected to read every evening for 10-30 minutes at home. 

Catching up for the lowest 20% of our pupils

At Harris Primary Academy Kenley, if a child is not meeting the expected standard, we ensure they receive reading support and that they are heard read aloud, ensuring that they get the enhancement and practice of the strategies required to become fluent and independent readers.

 

HPAK Reading Lead - Mr L Searle