Reading

Barton Hill is a reading school. Books and reading are at the heart of all that we learn.  At Barton Hill Primary Academy, we passionately believe that for our children to participate fully in our society they must first become successful readers. Reading develops children’s language and communication skills, enriches relationships and engenders creativity and imagination. To foster a ‘reading for pleasure’ culture at Barton Hill, we read and study our texts together in order to explore ideas and develop curiosity and excitement in our children. We also ensure there is time to encourage children to develop their own, individual passion for reading. We aim to create life-long readers. 

During their time at Barton Hill, children are exposed to a wide variety of genres and text types. We teach literacy through high quality literature, whether this is a key text used in the writing lesson, a focused story in guided reading and engaging with a classic novel.  In addition to this, we teach a rich text-based reading curriculum.  From Foundation Stage to Year 3 there is focused adult support for all children to ensure they develop their key decoding and fluency strategies. Teachers share whole texts with their classes as part of their English teaching, allowing children to access texts that may be beyond their current reading capabilities. As well as these opportunities for reading, Barton Hill has regular author visits as well as taking part in World Book Day in order to engage our children in the reading process and inspire them to be the life-long readers we wish to develop.

Accelerated Reader

As the children complete move beyond the Read Write Inc. decodable readers they move on to the Renaissance Accelerated Reader program. Students read a book levelled to their reading ability, take an online quiz, and get immediate feedback. Students respond to regular feedback and are motivated to make progress with their reading skills. Together with Star Reading and myON by Renaissance, it forms a complete reading practice and assessment solution for students of all ages and abilities.

To begin on the Accelerated Reader scheme, children first take an online Star Reading Test, this provides them with a reading age and ZPD Range. Books are carefully levelled and children begin on a book at the lower end of their ZPD. As they finish a book they take an online comprehension quiz. Depending on their quiz score, children choose their next book at the a lower, similar or higher level (within their allowed ZPD range) until they take their next Star Reading Test (usually, half termly) which will provide the child with a new ZPD range.

Teacher’s closely monitor reading and quiz scores through the accelerated reader dashboard to ensure children continue to read books at an appropriate level and can quickly provide intervention, if needed, to keep the child on track.

Find out what we are learning this term