The Reading Journey at KACP

At King's Academy College Park, our team work together to ensure that we all have a clear understanding of our reading journey, which aims to support all our children to become fluent readers who can use their different skills in reading to interact with a variety of texts and enable them to have full access to the curriculum. At KACP, we understand that literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning and that being literate increases an individual's opportunities throughout each stage of their education and future career.

We think carefully about how to promote the love of reading in our school, as we know that reading for pleasure boosts comprehension and engagement for our children. 

This link between reading for pleasure and increased reading comprehension has been observed through studies and research. According to Ofsted's research report, 'research indicates a positive correlation between pupils' engagement with reading and their attainment in reading.

Early reading with Decodable books:

When your child starts their reading journey with us at KACP, they will be working on decodable books, which are specifically designed to support their phonic knowledge at each stage of their learning. Your child will move through the different groups of sounds in our interactive phonics scheme (Super Sonic Phonic Friends). These levels start with Firm Foundations and move on through Basics to Higher 5.

Skillful Readers:

In the infants, we teach children to read through reading practice sessions three times a week.

These are taught by a fully trained adult to small groups of children. We use books matched to the children’s secure phonic knowledge using books that have been carefully selected to follow the SSPF progression.

Books are monitored by the class teacher, who rotates and works with each group on a regular basis.

Each reading practice session has a clear focus, so that the demands of the session do not overload the children’s working memory. The reading practice sessions have been designed to focus on three key reading skills:

• decoding
• prosody: teaching children to read with understanding and expression
• comprehension: teaching children to understand the text.

In Reception these sessions start in Week 4. Children who are not yet decoding have daily additional blending practice in small groups, so that they quickly learn to blend and can begin to read books.

Accelerated Reader:

As the children at KACP become confident in the knowledge of their phonic sounds and have shown that they can decode and blend, they will no longer need decodable books. At this stage, the children will be added to Accelerated Reader (AR), which is one of the most popular reading programs available.

“Motivate, monitor, and manage students' independent reading practice with Accelerated Reader and watch as students develop a true love for reading.”

AR uses computer-adaptive technology to assess the individual needs of pupils at every level. Once the children have undertaken their Star Diagnostic assessment on the computer, teachers are able to assign them a colour, which allows the child to know which level they are reading at and which books are suitable for them to choose from. When a child has read a book, they can then go on to their personal account and take a quiz to check their understanding of what they have read and also earn points towards their target!

Colour Banding:

The colour bands for AR are completely different to the ‘old style’ colour bands and much more reliable than some that have come before. Your child’s colour band is determined by their Star Diagnostic test, which gives them their ZPD number, and their teacher’s observations of quizzes undertaken.

Please read at home regularly with your children. It really makes a difference!