Reading
At Newlands we aim to develop our children to become confident, fluent, literate readers which will foster a lifelong love of reading, meeting new characters, going on adventures, exploring new ideas and experiencing different cultures.
We expose the children to a wide range of genres & authors throughout our curriculum and our teachers make links with subjects to ensure children are exposed to a wide range of authors, viewpoints and cultures.
Our consistent and rigorous approach to teaching the skill of reading, will provide children with a solid foundation to become enthused, excited and confident readers with a passion for storytelling, literature and vocabulary.
Read Write Inc is taught to years R, 1 & some of year 2. It is taught for one hour every morning. Children are grouped by stage not age across the year groups. During the afternoon, each TA in years R,1 & 2 are assigned to children to work with everyday on a 1-2-1 basis. These children are rotated each term to ensure we cover the whole class. Three reading books are sent home on a Monday and a Thursday. These books are matched to the sounds the children are learning that day or week.
VIPERS skills are taught from years 2,3,4,5 & 6. In every classroom reading is being taught daily for 45 minutes. Each session focuses on a different reading assessment skill: vocabulary, inference, prediction, explanation, retrieval and summarising (sequencing in KS1). Teachers are encouraged to use different media to engage the children in the learning process. We teach the skills of reading rather than completing comprehension activities.
We also use Accelerated Reader which encourages the children to read books at the right reading level for them to develop reading with independence. Accelerated Reader will bridge the gap between early phonics and early reading to a more fluent established reader. When children have completed the book they will take a test to progress to the next level.
During the school day, children will hear their teacher read the class novel for 20 minutes every day and they will read independently for up to 20 minutes. During this time, class teachers and supporting adults will work their way around the class, listening to identified children and will reinforce the skills they have acquired during their whole class reading sessions to encourage fluency by developing individual reading skills.
Every child in the school has a login for MyON. This is an online reading library which provides over 5,000 books for children to access on various platforms in school and at home. Their MyON account is linked with their Accelerated Reader account so the books are at the right level for them. By using MyON we are encouraging the children and parents/carers to read together at home.
Home Reading Expectations
Reading every night for 20 minutes using either; MyON, Accelerated Reading book, RWI book or any other reading material the child would like to read.