Reading and Phonics
Reading Intent
At Moorland Primary School it is our aim that by the end of their primary education all pupils are able to read fluently with confidence, understanding and passion. We prioritise the teaching of reading and we aim to develop life-long, positive attitudes for all of our pupils. We strive for a well-planned, progressive reading curriculum that supports and develops our rigorous teaching of phonics and provides opportunities for our pupils to develop a love of reading.
Reading progression for each year group
Our phonics scheme!
At Moorland, we have adopted a phonics scheme called 'Rocket Phonics'. It is a DFE validated story based systematic, synthetic phonics programme for Reception and Key Stage One. The programme is based on the progression of Letters and Sounds and is designed to ensure all pupils achieve reading success.
As a school, we have invested heavily in this new scheme to ensure that all of our pupils achieve phonic success. We have new copies of all of the titles available and ask you to respect and care for the books at home. All pupils will have a TARGET PRACTICE READING BOOK which provide focused practice of small groups of target letter-sounds. These books are fully decodable and fully aligned with the programme.
They will also have a ROCKET PHONICS READING BOOK. The Rocket Phonics range of reading books are the ideal complement to the programme as additional decodable reading practice books. These books are fully aligned to the programme and can be used as soon as all the letter-sounds in a particular colour band have been taught.
Reading Planet Rocket Phonics Resources
What is phonics?
Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children to hear, identify and use different sounds. Written language is like a code, knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they’re combined will help children to decode words as they read. Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words. Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual or groups of letters. For example, the sound ‘k’ can be spelt as c, k, ck or ch.
Look at your child's class page to find phonics games to play at home!
Our reading journey continues in Key Stage 2 with the addition of
What is Accelerated Reader?
AR is part of the Renaissance Reading software package recently adopted by the school to encourage and improve reading, measure growth of the individual reader and to provide quality reading for all. It allows for personalised learning targets to be set up and for progress to be easily monitored. This short guide will help you to understand the system better so that you can support your child with their reading.
Your child will choose a book at their own level and read it at their own pace. When finished, they will take a short quiz on the computer. Passing the quiz is an indication that your child has understood the book.
AR gives both children and teachers feedback based on the quiz results, which the teacher then uses to help your child set goals and direct ongoing reading practice.
AR is used as part of a comprehensive reading programme in place at Moorland Primary School for children in Key Stage 2. While we continue to teach the skills of reading in class, the AR books chosen by your child will provide them with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they have developed.
Pupils using AR are encouraged to progress at their own pace and they have personalised targets based on their reading ability. The aim of AR is for all children to succeed in achieving their targets.
What are STAR Reading Tests?
Every child taking part in AR will complete a STAR reading test at the beginning of the year and at the end of each half-term. It is a twenty minute multiple choice reading assessment completed individually on the computer. Questions continually adjust to your child’s responses so if their response is correct, the difficulty level is increased. If they miss a question or give an incorrect answer, the difficulty level is reduced.
The STAR reading test, along with teacher judgement assists us in identifying a child’s ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) range.
At Moorland Primary School children are explicitly taught the fundamental skills of reading (as outlined in the National Curriculum) through the use of VIPERS which have been created by The Literacy Shed.
The reading VIPERS are first shared in Reception and then used consistently in KS1 and KS2.
What are VIPERS?
VIPERS is an anagram 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. 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.
