"The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more you learn,

the more places you'll go."

Dr Seuss, 'I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!'

At Great Hockham Primary and Nursery School we aim to equip every child with the skills and enthusiasm to become independent and confident readers. We want our children to love books and to read for pleasure so daily exposure to high quality texts is a crucial part of our pupil's days at home and at school.

How we learn to read...

Phonics:

We use Little Wandle, a systematic synthetic phonics programme, to teach early reading.  Phonic skills are essential for the decoding of and spelling of words. The children are taught to discriminate and produce the sounds in speech, to develop their knowledge of spelling patterns and how to apply grammar rules during daily, systematic and enjoyable sessions.  It is our aim that by the end of Key Stage 1 the children will have developed fluent word reading skills and have a good foundation in spelling and comprehension. Any child who is showing that they are falling behind with their word reading in year 2 and above will be assessed using the Little Wandle Rapid Catch up assessment tools and will then have specific and targeted intervention to fill the gaps and ensure that they can then reach their reading potential.

Reading Comprehension:

Comprehension skills are a huge aspect of reading and these skills are developed through one to one reading, whole class or small group story sessions and specific reading comprehension lessons. Adults read with all children on a regular basis to help them secure their word reading and comprehension skills.

During whole class reading sessions, pupils are given the opportunity to secure the core elements of the comprehension aspect of reading. At Great Hockham Primary School and Nursery we teach comprehension skills through a whole class reading approach using the reading VIPERS as a starting point.

VIPERS stands for:
Vocabulary
Inference
Prediction
Explanation
Retrieval
Sequence (KS1) or Summarise (KS2)  

The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics, decoding, prosody and fluency. VIPERS is not a reading scheme but rather a method of ensuring that children are asked and are familiar with, a range of questions. They allow the teacher to track the types of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allow for targeted questions afterwards. Lessons are planned to foster a love of reading in addition to developing the key comprehension skills needed for children as they progress through their education.

Each class enjoys listening to a wide variety of text types and stories during the year. These texts are progressive as children move higher up the school and include a wide variety of genres to ensure we meet the reading requirements of the National Curriculum.

Reading at Home:

All children take home reading books. Children here are encouraged to read at home at least 3 times a week and we ask parents and carers to support their child’s learning by recording the reading that they do at home in their reading record. We want our children to become proficient readers to enable them to access all areas of the curriculum and so that the children can develop a lifelong passion for reading. 

Reading Ambassadors:

Some of our Year Six pupils are reading ambassadors for the school. These children are wonderful role models to our younger children. They help children access books in our welcoming library, and run story club activities for the children to enjoy. 

Reading Scheme Books for Children:

Children in EYFS and KS1 have access to decodable texts to share at home with their families. These books are matched closely to their phonological awareness and the children are encouraged to re-read these books three times to build their confidence and fluency. As the children become secure with all 5 phases of phonemes, they begin to select appropriate 'real' books to share at home. The children are encouraged to read a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry.