At Mansfield Primary Academy, we want our children to learn to read and develop a lifelong love for reading.

We approach reading in 3 strands:

• Quality first teaching
• An inclusive reading environment
• Developing a love of reading

Quality First Teaching

Early Reading is built on phonics and the Little Wandle programme. Children explore high-quality language and in-depth discussions which stem from the text. Throughout the academy, high-quality texts have been carefully chosen for each class to study and use as part of a shared reading approach.

 

Reading Sessions

Reading is a fundamental life skill that underpins every area of success. Children participate in various reading activities in a typical week, including one-to-one reading, group, whole class reading and reading for pleasure. A reading development journey is supported through phonic books and Accelerated Reader books. Helping our children and their understanding of reading is most important during our class sessions. Our reading sessions are structured to support our children with:

• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension strategies
• Cross-curricular links
• Reading for pleasure

At Mansfield Primary Academy, children read, are read to and see adults reading to promote a positive reading culture.

 

Love of Reading

Teaching reading is essential but loving reading is more important. Children need to want to read and we do many things to encourage them to love their reading.

• Teachers read to children every day – it's so important that children hear adults read with passion and enthusiasm as great models.
• All classes have chosen authors they will focus on throughout the year. 

• Reading areas in ALL classrooms.

• Reading assemblies occur weekly to celebrate our Reading Champions, Eager Readers and learn about a new author, illustrator or poet.

 

How do we support our children?

As reading is the key to all areas, we make it our mission to do all we can to ensure children make progress in reading. Whilst undertaking our reading lessons, we assess the children carefully and react swiftly to give them extra support and interventions to help them progress in line with their peers and move forward. We have a range of reading interventions, including immediate in-class support from a teacher or teaching assistant, regular phonics groups in EYFS and Key Stage 1, assisted reading, paired reading, PIXL reading therapies, speed reading practice and 1:1 reading with adults.

 

Accelerated Reader (AR)

Upon Graduating from the 'Little Wandle' phonics scheme and successfully passing the phonics screening test, children move onto the Accelerated Reader (AR) program. It is a website-based program designed to support students to become independent readers and make progress with their reading. The use of AR  ensures books are matched to the child's ability in decoding and comprehension.
Through the Star Reading test, we assess students' reading ability at least three times a year. Students receive a ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development), which guides students to appropriately levelled books. Once they have read a book, they can take a short computer-based quiz to check their understanding. Each book is worth a number of points and we run various competitions individually and in form groups.
Accelerated Reader is a fun and interactive way to encourage reading whilst tracking progress. We support students in reading a wide range of texts and encourage them to read challenging books. We want students to share their reading at home and regularly read as part of their daily routine.
We use the program in conjunction with our other reading initiatives to support students in reading independently and inspire them to enjoy the world of books.

More information can be found in the attachments below.