Implementation

The school teaches reading through a combination of approaches:

• Whole class shared reading
• Modelling reading
• Close reading
• Paired reading
• Independent at school and at home
• Decoding
• Reading comprehension with written answers
• Reading assessments

Home-School Reading

Children choose an independent reading text. They record the date, title and page number in their reading record. At Wilbury Junior School we encourage a reading partnership where parents share books at home with their children and provide valuable help and support for this area of the curriculum. Parents are encouraged to make comments in reading records, regarding pupils’ progress.

Intervention programmes

For children who are not making expected progress, a range of intervention programmes are used to ensure pupils ‘catch-up’. These may include 1-1 or in small groups. Children with Special Educational Needs may have targets on their Personal Learning Plan relating to their work in intervention programmes.

Individual Reading

All children will be heard to read by an adult in school on a regular basis.

Whole class shared reading

Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading (outlined in the National Curriculum and the KS2 test domains) through the use of VIPERS, which were created by Rob Smith (The Literacy Shed).

In Key Stage Two children, reading skills are taught and practised using VIPERS during whole class reading sessions.

VIPERS whole class reading sessions take place 5x a week for 30 minutes. During these sessions, classes focus on a chapter, while teaching the skills.

• Classes focus on vocabulary within that chapter and complete tasks to boost their general knowledge.
• Teachers focus on the teaching of fluency and will just read the focus chapter. During this session, teachers will use a variety of strategies e.g. echo, choral or paired reading.
• Children will complete activities or answer comprehension questions focussing on one of the VIPERS.

Assessment

Reading will be continually assessed through whole-class guided reading. Children will undertake a termly test using the NFER reading test, once completed teacher will analyse them.

The PM Benchmark Kit and Salford reading test is used to assess and monitor the impact of intervention programmes and to assess the reading ability of pupils.

Reading across the curriculum

As well as reading during English lessons and for enjoyment, appropriate texts are used in the classroom to support the wider curriculum.

The skills of skimming and scanning are developed as the children progress through school and the emphasis

is on applying these skills across the curriculum, using reading skills to further develop knowledge and understanding across a range of subjects.

The school takes part in events such as World Book Day and holds at least one book fair a year, at which parents can buy high-quality books at reduced prices. 

Impact

We encourage our children to enjoy and value the curriculum we deliver. We want learners to discuss, reflect and appreciate the impact reading has on their learning, lives, development and well-being. Learning environments across the school will display books in a positive and inviting way. Whole school and parental engagement will be improved through the continued use of book-banded reading books, whole-class reading books and rewarding children who have regularly read during the week. We want to ensure that reading is loved by teachers and pupils across Wilbury. This will be done by encouraging pupils to want to continue building on and developing a love of reading, now and in the future.