‘To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled is a spark.’ – Victor Hugo  

Reading lies at the heart of our English curriculum. We love reading! Children at Wiggonby School are given regular opportunities to read to an adult, have stories read to them, explore a range of texts together in the classroom and have access to high quality fiction and non-fiction for independent reading.  In addition, children are encouraged to read regularly at home with our popular and successful ‘Strive for 5’ programme, where children receive bronze, silver and gold awards each term for reading to an adult five times each week.  We use the ‘Boom Reader’ app, which enables parents and teachers to keep track of how the children are doing, what they are reading and how frequently. We have invested in new reading books to support phonics, and also a new reading scheme for our older children. Children are encouraged to read for pleasure, but having a school reading book ensures that all pupils (right up to children in Year 6) are reading a variety of texts with appropriate challenge. 

We learn to read using a systematic synthetics phonics programme. Click below to visit the 'Phonics' page.

Throughout the year we celebrate reading with visits from the library van, competitions, reading bingo challenges, ‘World Book Day’ celebrations, author visits, book fairs and book-linked dance and drama workshops.  In all classes, children listen to a class story at least three times per week. These are sometimes chosen by the teacher and sometimes voted for by the children. This gives children the opportunity to engage with texts that are perhaps beyond their own reading level, and to listen to stories for fun!

At Wiggonby, we use the reading VIPERS acronym and related materials to help children to focus on reading skills.

V - Vocabulary

I -  Inference

P - Prediction

E - Explain

R- Retrieve

S - Sequence (KS1) or Summarise (KS2)

From Year 1, we begin to read books as a class group.  This happens with increasing frequency as children move through the school.  We are lucky to have an ever-growing library of sets of high-quality texts to enable the children to each have a copy of the book that is being studied.

At Wiggonby School, intervention is provided for children who need it, including access to dyslexia resources and programmes to provide additional support with reading and spelling. Teachers aim to equip ALL learners with the strategies that they need to make progress, and we have a culture of encouragement and learning together, so that all children gain confidence.

We have plenty of books in school to support all of our topics, and also have termly book boxes from the schools library service. During our ‘Stone Age’ topic, our reading cave was popular!