MarlboroughReading
Reading is at the heart of everything we do, unlocking a wealth of language and a lifetime of opportunity.
Reading at MPS
At MPS, we put reading at the heart of all that we do. Our school is filled with engaging, exciting literature that reflects our community; our children have a love of reading.
Early Years children - It is important to read so I can read harder and longer books when I am in Year 6. Reading is important and I can read because I do my phonics learning everyday. I love buddy reading with Year 6 because they are so kind to me. The picture book library is fun because I like reading with my friends.
Key Stage One child - I like reading all of the different books, they are fun and interesting! I especially like using the books to help me with my writing. After we have read clean up, we are not creating posters to persuade people to save our planet!
Key Stage Two child - I love how many books we have in our library and how many stories you can take from them and remember. Reading lessons feel like we are working as a team to explore a book and I love learning new vocabulary as we read!'
Early Years Teacher - Stories, poems and nursery rhymes come to life through play and meaningful experiences.
Key Stage One teacher - Teaching reading at Marlborough is an absolute joy. The books are incredibly well chosen to suit the children's interests and to motivate and challenge them. The children love finding out what book we are learning about and it becomes a key part of the teaching of our week. Planning the lessons is a real treat, as I get to immerse myself in the text and think about the exciting lessons and outcomes that it can bring.
Key Stage Two teacher - I thoroughly enjoy teaching reading and exploring new books with the children. Our curriculum is always evolving to meet the needs of the children. For example, we have recently added two new texts to Year 5 (Malamander and Amari) to give children more exposure to fantasy books and books that are loaded with rich vocabulary which they can use in their writing.
How we Teach Reading - Implementation
At Marlborough, from Year 1 to Year 6, Reading is taught four times per week for 30 minutes. The children will explore a range of books throughout the year.
An overview of these books can be found here:
Reading Curriculum Overview
We follow the Reading VIPERS approach.
VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the Reading curriculum. They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension skills.
VIPERS stands for:
- Vocabulary
- Inference
- Prediction
- Explanation
- Retrieval
- Sequence (KS1) or Summarise (KS2)
Each reading lessons begins with a ‘speedy retrieval’ to ensure every child recaps prior reading; this allows the children to retrieve what they have read previously and answer retrieval questions based on this. This may be discussed verbally as a class, with learning partners, on whiteboards or in their books.
A typical Reading lesson will:
- explicitly teach vocabulary
- explore a range of VIPERS
- generate rich discussions about the book, characters etc
Reading activities will be recorded in Reading books and each VIPER will be clearly displayed.
Every two weeks, the children explore an alternative text which links to the main text. This could be a poem, song, newspaper article, interview etc. This is called an alternative text lesson.
As well as Reading lessons, our children have a weekly library session, class novel time and enjoy buddy reading each week.
Reading Diaries
All pupils have a reading diary and children are expected to read every day. At Marlborough, we have three reading diaries depending on the children’s reading ability:
- Early Reading diary (with a focus on phonics)
- Key Stage One Reading Diary
- Key Stage Two Reading diary
This serves as a dialogue between the children, adults and parents about:
- the book the child has read
- what page they have got up to
- how they read
- discussions about the book
- how well matched the book was to the child’s ability level
- any words they found hard
Reading diaries are checked once per week when the child reads with an adult.
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Here are the different expectations for reading at home: |
Reading Expectations |
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Children reading phonics/ banded books. |
Reading with an adult every day and adult signs reading diary every day. |
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Y2 free readers |
Reading with an adult every day and adult signs reading diary every day. |
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Year 3/4 free readers |
Children should read for a minimum of 15 minutes a day with an adult and the adult will write in the reading diary every day. |
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Year 5/6 free readers |
Children should read for a minimum of 20 minutes a day. Three of these days should be with an adult who will write in the reading diary . The other days, the children will read independently and write in their own reading diary. |
All children from Nursery to Year 6 will be heard read by an adult in school every week.
If a book is lost/damaged, families will be charged £5 to replace the book.
Recommended Reading Lists - 100 books
For each year group, we have compiled 100 books that each child could read.
This ensures children cover a range of:
- fiction
- non-fiction and
- poetry
A range of literature is read throughout the year. These books are challenging and give our children exposure to new literature as well as exploring the classics.
Books you could read in:
Amazon Wishlists
We are delighted to share with you our wishlists. These are 100 books each child could read in each year group and our hope and dream is to fill our school with every single one of these books.
This will allow our children to read modern fiction, non-fiction and poetry and develop a love of reading.
These books will be outside each classroom for everyone to read. Please feel free to share these links with families and communities. We invite families to buy a book from the wishlist on their child’s birthday if they would like to.
Can you help us reach our goal?
Reading Workshops
