Approach to Reading
At Ark Victoria, we believe that reading is the greatest gift. Reading has an enduring power to shape and develop minds within and beyond the classroom.
We strive to provide children with the tools they need to become confident, fluent readers whose passion for reading encourages them to read widely for enjoyment and to further their learning.
Our Reading Curriculum
| Text Selection | |||
| Balanced | Diverse | Representative | Coherent |
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Exposing pupils to a range of genres and authors encourages them to read more widely of their own volition. Where appropriate, texts are chosen to align with other areas of the curriculum, such as history and geography, so that background knowledge and vocabulary can facilitate the comprehension of challenging texts.
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Pupils read texts which offer opportunities to engage with a diverse range of perspectives, cultures and settings (both familiar and unfamiliar to them). This encourages pupils to become respectful, curious and to develop a strong moral purpose.
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Our text selection reflects our school community, offering up a mirror to pupils whereby they can see themselves represented by both characters and authors of texts that are studied. |
Coherent text selection facilitates progress by considering various measures of difficulty including Lexile levels, complexity of plot or narrator and non-linear time sequences. |
Victoria Reads on Twitter
Follow our Ark Victoria Reads Twitter account to share in the wonderful reading work of our pupils and to hear all the latest reading news from our academy!
Libraries
Reading is at the heart of everything that we do at Ark Victoria Academy. We are therefore extremely lucky to have engaging primary and secondary libraries stocked with a broad and diverse range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books.
When visiting the libraries, pupils are able to choose from a myriad of texts including myths, legends and traditional stories, modern fiction, fiction from our literary heritage, and books from other cultures and traditions.
The inviting library spaces that we have and the wealth of literature on offer ultimately support us in instilling a love of reading in our pupils, so that they read widely of their own volition.
Research consistently shows strong positive correlation between academic achievement and pupils who read widely and often for pleasure.
To support pupils to independently access literature that is appropriately pitched, Accelerated Reader books are labelled clearly with their ZPD Level within our libraries. Pupils in Key Stage 2 and above use their ZPD Level to guide their choices.
Pupils across both primary and secondary phases have regular timetabled library sessions where they are able to change their book and enjoy reading for pleasure. Additionally, beginning in Spring term 2023, we are opening our primary library to the community on a weekly basis so that children are able to attend together with their parents.
