Reading in KS2
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.” — Kate DiCamillo author of ‘The Tale of Despereaux’
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snicket, author of ‘The Series of Unfortunate Events‘
At Illogan Primary School, we strive to develop enthusiasm, confidence, and a clear understanding for literacy in all its forms. We are passionate about reading and the legacy that reading for pleasure can have on our pupil’s journey through life after they leave us. We believe that competency and enjoyment of reading is key to opening the gateway for independent learning and therefore, reading is treated with high value, and as a priority by all staff at Illogan.
In KS2, the children build upon their reading and comprehension skills through whole class reading lessons. Each half term the class read a new text. Whilst reading the text, the teachers and children discuss the vocabulary, make predictions, explain what they know and why and find answers to questions within the text.
By exposing pupils to high-quality children’s literature, it allows our setting to foster rich learning environments where reading, vocabulary and comprehension skills can thrive. Through these environments, we aim to inspire our pupils to engage with reading positively whilst also supporting their development as lifelong readers and learners.
We use high quality engaging texts which have been carefully chosen to offer our learners a varied diet of new enterprising author texts which inform our pupils on our ever-increasing diverse culture, whilst also revisiting key children’s classics which every reader should experience as they progress through any curriculum. Books are carefully linked and interwoven into our wider curriculum to enhance and inform our pupils wider lessons.
At Illogan, we aim to expose our students to a range of genres and authors allowing for every reader to develop an affinity with texts they would not necessarily select or be familiar with from Highstreet stores selections, therefore ensuring that our pupils receive a broad and balanced reading curriculum.
Our curriculum provides opportunities for our pupils to foster empathy, debate, enquire, wrestle with moral righteousness and challenge stereotypes whilst also reflecting on vocabulary choices and the authors writing style to deepen our children’s understanding of literature in all its forms. Books are a catalyst in all aspects of our English curriculum and is prioritised through daily lessons to develop our pupils into successful speakers, wonderful writers, and reflective readers.
Teaching of Reading following Read Write Inc
One session per day is set aside for the teaching of Reading, whilst a further short session is also provided in KS2 for the teaching of spelling, grammar, and vocabulary skills. Each half term is kickstarted by a non-fiction text which is selected to support the knowledge and understanding for the children’s overarching topic. Within our fictional curriculum, we cover a variety of genres including historical narrative, mystery, adventure, fantasy, and science fiction.
Following the completion of our early reading phonic scheme (RWInc) and fluent decoding skills have been established, greater focus is placed on comprehension skills. We use the VIPERS approach to teach the skills of reading from Year 2 or earlier dependent on achievement.
Our children complete written VIPERS activities at least three times per week from Year 2 using a whole class teaching approach. These skills are taught explicitly and are modelled and scaffolded to support the learning of these skills.
In addition to our usual whole class reading approach, children also have access to Accelerated Reader which support children to select appropriate ability books whilst also testing pupils comprehension through quiz recaps. Alternatively, the children also have access to electronic books through using MyON. All of these books are levelled and will closely match individual children’s reading ability.
As with children in EYFS and KS1, we ask that children in KS2 read at home daily. The children are able choose MyOn (e-books) or school library books to read at home.
Below are links to the Accelerated Reader and MyOn login pages.
How can I help my child with reading at home?
Listen to your child read as regularly as possible. We encourage the children to read at home daily.
Continue to read to your child regularly.
Talk to your child about what they are reading. Key questions to ask:
What does that word mean?
How do you know that…?
What do you think will happen next? Why do you think that?
Do you like this story? Why?
Whay do you think that… did that?
What has happened so far?
Top tips for helping your child read words that they don’t recognise.
If you have any questions about reading at school or at home, please ask your child’s class teacher and they will be more than happy to support reading from home.
Please see below for English Policy.