Reading
Learning the code of written language and acquiring literacy skills is fundamental to education and achievement.
Students have at least 30 minutes dedicated reading time every day, with many following the Accelerated Reader programme and others using the Rapid Reader and Oxford Reading Tree schemes.
Accelerated Reader is a programme that encourages students to read for enjoyment. After reading each book, students take a quiz to assess their comprehension. This information is collated by the computerised system to provide ongoing analytical progress data. An interactive Reading Dashboard allows teachers to monitor students’ progress and this, combined with data from the Renaissance Star Reading assessment, is used to track progress and identify students who need more support to develop their reading.
The Accelerated Reading Home Connect service allows parents and carers to see their child’s reading progress and book quiz results. This can be accessed by using the log in details provided by the class teacher (lower school) or form tutor (upper school).
Pupils’ reading develop skills most effectively when they read appropriately challenging books, therefore students undertake regular reading assessments to obtain a ‘ZPD range’ (Zone of Proximal Development). This Accelerated Reader book range ensures that students are reading at a level that is appropriate to their ability.
Students whose reading level is below that of the Accelerated Reading programme, or who have been identified as needing an alternative reading programme, follow the Rapid Reading or Oxford Reading Tree schemes. Oxford Reading Tree is the UK’s number one reading scheme with over 800 books, providing a rich and varied choice of writing styles, genres and artwork styles at every level. Rapid Reading is designed specifically for struggling and reluctant readers, with age-appropriate books in a dyslexia friendly design. Each books contains a story and a related non-fiction text, which are followed by comprehension questions. Benchmark books are used to assess whether the student is ready to move up to the next stage.
