At Biscovey Academy, we want all pupils to develop a love of reading for life. Reading is at the core of everything we do and we believe that it is a fundamental part of our learning, development and enjoyment.
We work closely with our colleagues in the early years and key stage one to build on our knowledge and skills and continue our journey through reading. We have introduced the Fresh Start Read Write Inc. programme to support our phonics, reading and writing in our school. This program provides phonetically decodable texts and a daily group session for children to bridge gaps and make positive engagement with their reading.
We are determined that every pupil will learn to read, regardless of their background, needs or abilities. We support all pupils, including the weakest readers, to make sufficient progress, reading widely and often, with fluency and comprehension appropriate to their age.
Across our school through years 3, 4, 5 and 6 we support all children to read accurately and fluently across a range of topics and genres. Our teaching is aimed to heighten children’s vocabulary and explore depth in their understanding of the world around them. We challenge ourselves to inspire children to have enthusiasm, happiness and creativity through reading while enhancing their voices and views. The use of VIPERS to focus on daily reading skills allows children to delve into a range of stories, poetry, plays, fiction and non-fiction and justify their opinions on what they read. VIPERS stands for vocabulary, inference, predict, explain, retrieve and summarise.
In order to establish reading levels, we have introduced the Accelerated Reader program which has redesigned the library and enabled children to read age and level appropriate books. Children are thrilled to complete a quiz for their books and add to their word count scores at the hope of becoming a member of the millionaire’s club.
Each half term we embrace our school focus of DREAMS; this encourages a set of positive attributes across our children. Reading is the underlying focus of our school and we have selected a range of literature to teach these elements and embed them through the art of storytelling. Our school staff share our love for reading with the children too and our favourite books are prominent within classrooms and discussions across all age groups.
By the end of their Biscovey journey, we hope that children will leave us with a sufficient knowledge of reading and are immersed in the world of literature for pleasure in their everyday lives. Reading is a life-long discovery full of wonder and aspirations – we want all children to have a love for reading and books and see the world with inquisitive, knowledgeable and curious eyes.
