Students reading in class Students reading in class

Student Reading

Reading practice creates not only stronger readers but also lifelong readers which supports in building the stamina that students need to be career and further education ready.

In the last academic year, students at Cornelius Vermuyden school have read 79 million words in just Key Stage Three alone which is an amazing achievement for all.

As a school, we currently have access to the Renaissance programs STAR reading and Accelerated reader.

Star Reading determines reading age and ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development). This corresponds to book ratings, which are labelled on the books in our library and enables students to select books that are suitable for their reading ability.

STAR Reading takes place at key points throughout the year to review and assess reading progress.

Accelerated Reader helps teachers to manage and monitor independent reading practice. Once a book is selected, students read it at their own level and pace taking a short quiz on completion to indicate level of understanding.

Accelerated Reader is a programme that can be used weekly to support the students reading comprehension.

New for 2022

This academic year, we have made some valuable additions to the Reading programme.

Reading progress is a Microsoft teams app which supports students in building fluency.

Students will be set an assignment on SMHW to read a single passage out loud, creating an audio recording. This allows us to collect valuable data and check student progress regularly for those who require additional support in their reading.

All students now have access to myON’s digital book library. This programme contains thousands of age-appropriate titles for secondary students that are rich with engaging and interactive tools, and personalised to the individual learner’s year group and reading level. Students can access books both online and offline, from any browser-based device, anytime, anywhere!

D.A.R.T (Directed Active Reading Time)
We have built an additional 25 minutes a day into the curriculum in order to further improve students reading and fluency skills. This programme is specifically developed for each individual tutor group and includes skills such as pre-teaching of vocabulary, character reading, discussion, debate and author talks.

Supporting student reading at home

The students will continue to build their reading skills and love of reading in school all year long and it would be wonderful if this develops at home too.

Here are some top tips for supporting student reading at home:

  • Use www.ARbookfind.co.uk to search for books you may have at home or nonfiction articles your child can read digitally in AR.
  • Encourage your child to read for at least 30-minutes every day.
  • Talk to your child about their book. Who is their favourite character? What do they predict will happen next?
  • Read to your child and listen to them read aloud to you (even strong readers benefit from this time).
  • Check out the Parent’s Guide to Accelerated Reader for more information:
    www.renlearn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/AR-parents-guide-updated.pdf

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