Reading

"I didn’t want to read but the school has made me want to."

Year 6 pupil

 Our whole school reading approach is to encourage a love of reading for pleasure and to increase fluency and confidence. We have a number of approaches in place for this year.

Some of our strategies are included below:

Whole School Reading Approaches 2023/2024

Accelerated Reader and MyOn

All pupils at Leighton Middle have access to Accelerated Reader and MyOn to support their reading. Accelerated Reader is a reading system that enables us to closely monitor their reading age and ability. This is used alongside MyOn, which is an online library of books that can recommend books to pupils based on their reading ability. Years 5, 6 and 7 have a weekly Accelerated Reader lesson in the library as part of their English lessons and Year 8 have theirs fortnightly. During this lesson, they can read online using MyOn; read a physical copy of a book or they may be heard reading aloud by an adult.

All children are assigned a ‘ZPD’ by Accelerated Reader which then allows them to choose books that aren’t too easy, but do offer some level of challenge to help improve their reading. The vast majority of the books in our school library are labelled with Accelerated Reader codes to help them when choosing a book to read. Once a pupil has read a book, they can complete a quiz on the book they have read which will focus on assessing both their word reading and comprehension of the book. Once the quiz is completed, pupils are then free to read another book within their ZPD. Children can read books on electronic devices if they prefer as they can still quiz provided the book is on Accelerated Reader.

Since launching Accelerated Reader in September 2022, our pupils have spent over 800 hours reading on MyOn and have read a combined total of over 28 million words!

To find out more information about how Accelerated Reader and MyOn work and how to support your child, please see the LMS Guide to Accelerated Reader here.

In afternoon registrations, on a Monday and Tuesday, all pupils are read aloud to by their form tutors. All tutor groups are reading whole books which have been voted for through pupil voice and give pupils to listen to a whole text, immerse themselves in text and foster a love of reading.

Reading for pleasure - afternoon reading by the Form Tutor

 RATIONALE

Reading for pleasure comes with HUGE benefits for pupils!  

• Reading enjoyment has been reported as more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status
• There is a positive link between positive attitudes towards reading and scoring well on reading assessments  
• Evidence suggests that reading for pleasure is an activity that has emotional and social benefits
• Other benefits of reading for pleasure include positive reading attitudes, pleasure in reading in later life, and increased general knowledge  

Year 8 Voted afternoon reading book

Ravens Gate by Anthony Horowitz

He always knew he was different.
First there were the dreams.
Then the deaths began.

When Matt Freeman gets into trouble with the police, he's sent to be fostered in Yorkshire. It's not long before he senses there's something wrong with his guardian; with the whole village.

Then Matt learns about the Old Ones and begins to understand just how he is different. But no one will believe him; no one can help.

There is no proof. There is no logic. There is just the Gate.

First book in the series…..

 “A supernatural adventure of the most chilling kind”

British Value links:

Rule of Law - Matt (the protagonist) begins to lose his way and is arrested by the police for committing a crime.

Democracy – the right to express a different opinions.  

Year 7 Voted afternoon reading book

Year 6 Voted afternoon reading book

British Value links:

Individual Liberty - Jack is faced with decision making and mystery throughout the book, shaping him as an individual. The story is humorous and whimsical but also explores the notion of dealing with loss and grief closely linked with SMSC and through Jack’s emotional roller coaster he is able to develop a strong sense of self and understand the world around him. 

Year 5 Voted afternoon reading book

Spellstoppers by Cat Gray

Max has spent years thinking he is cursed, because whenever he touches anything electrical it explodes. But then he is sent to Yowling and discovers he is a Spell stopper, someone with the rare ability to drain dangerous build-ups of magic and fix misbehaving enchanted items.

When Max's Grandad is kidnapped by the cruel Keeper of the malfunctioning magical castle that floats in the bay, only Max's gift can save him. Together with his new friend Kit, Max throws himself into an adventure filled with villainous owls, psychic ice cream and man-eating goldfish. But can he really pull off the biggest spell stop ever?

"Spellstoppers is a charming page-turner and I lapped up every moment of this magical tale.“ C Povey (children’s author)  

British Value links:

Democracy – Max has the right to protest against the evil keeper of the magic castle. He has the opportunity to make joint decisions with his friend Kit

Individual Liberty - Max makes a choice to jointly throw himself into standing up to what he believes is wrong.