Our curriculum covers the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum.  It is a bespoke curriculum written by the team at Lytham Hall Park for the pupils of Lytham Hall Park.  It uses a connected approach and we teach half termly and termly connectors.  The curriculum has been created to meet the needs and interests of our pupils.  It is designed to not only engage and enthuse our pupils but also to help them make connections between subjects and to develop the skills and knowledge they need to ensure they become independent and confident life long learners. 

Reading at Lytham Hall Park

We use a variety of different books in school to help us teach reading and foster a love of literature. These include two schemes,  Oxford Reading Tree and Bug Club alongside 'Real Books' as they progress on to Accelerated Reader in Year 2.

 

We follow national guidance and start our children reading phonic books until they are secure at phonic phase five.

 

In phonics we teach our children using systematic synthetic phonics and we have developed a scheme of work linked with fidelity to Letters and Sounds. 

 

In 2015 we introduced Accelerated Reader.  This runs from Year 2 up to Year 6. 

If you want to know more about Accelerated Reader you can follow this link

http://www.renlearn.co.uk/accelerated-reader/

From the Accelerated Reader website you can also download the Accelerated Reader App and the Book Finder.  You can use these with the Login and Password you will find in your child's Reading Planner.

 

The National Literacy Trust’s second independent research report into the reading habits of students using Accelerated Reader...

“Children and young people who use AR tend to enjoy reading more, do it more often and think more positively about reading than their peers who do not use AR. They are also more likely to see a link between reading and their successes.”

Dr Christina Clark, National Literacy Trust

 

Pupils who use Accelerated Reader are more likely to:

• enjoy reading
• have a favourite book
• agree that reading is cool
• read regularly at least once a week outside class
• agree that they will get a better job when they grow up if they are good at reading

 

Pupils who use Accelerated Reader are more likely to:

• enjoy reading
• agree that reading is cool
• read more actual books in a typical month
• see themselves as readers
• read outside class at least once a week

 

 

ACCELERATED READER GUIDANCE FOR PARENTS 

 

Reading is one of the most important skills your child will ever learn. If your child reads well and loves to read, they will excel in school and be enabled to achieve and grow in all aspects of their learning. It is with this in mind that we introduced Accelerated Reader to Years 2 to 6 at Lytham Hall Park.
 

The most important goal regarding Accelerated Reading (AR) is to encourage a love for reading by developing confidence through practice. Research demonstrates that reading practice is the most important factor in a child’s literacy development. Reading practice allows children to perfect the reading skills they learn so that they can move beyond the struggle of decoding text and begin reading for learning and pleasure.

Accelerated Reading is an individualised reading program for children. It allows teachers to set goals, track growth and monitor comprehension. The program also provides a bank of over 110, 000 book quizzes that children can complete after reading a book from our reading scheme or ‘real’ books that are now a choice for children to read at home. The book levels (ZPD) range from 0.2 to 13.5 and we have a wide and ever increasing variety of books for children to select.

This Accelerated Reader replaced the book banding system, linked to colours,  as the books are organised differently. Your child completes a reading test which generates a ZPD score, with this they have been given their ZPD range in the form of a grid which is stuck at the front of your child’s planner. Your child can choose any book in their ZPD range (please note these will not correlate to any former book band at our school or your child's previous school and your child may bring home books from a wide variety of colour bands). When they have finished reading their book, they log on to Accelerated Reader at school, using their personal log in and take an online quiz.

 

Accelerated reader has many benefits. It assesses your child’s comprehension and understanding of the book they have read. It also identifies the new vocabulary and skills your child has developed through reading. Then, through the fun online quizzes, your child can apply the skills that have learnt. Additionally, Accelerated Reader assesses your child’s reading level and suggests books which are also age and interest appropriate. Not only does it recommend books that are at the correct reading ability for your child it also uses the child’s own interests and reading preferences.

 

We encourage children to choose books within their reading level that are of interest to them. The love of reading will develop when children are not frustrated by the text in the books they select. Accelerated Reading is a wonderful tool for allowing this love of reading to happen.

Accelerated Reading has three main objectives:
1) to dramatically improve student reading performance, as measured by standardized tests,
2) to improve children’s critical-thinking skills,
3) to instill in children a lifelong love of reading.

We have introduced many exciting events and rewards linked to reading and Accelerated Reader.  The 100% board, the Millionaire Club and lots of visiting authors to tell you just a few of the reading incentives in school. 

 

You can monitor your child’s progress with the programme by logging on to Renaissance Home Connect with your child's log in which we send home to you each year. This log on allows you to see how often your child has completed quizzes, what books they have read and quizzed on, their scores and gives you suggestions on how you can support your child at home. Additionally you can use the book finder tool to search for books that are appropriate for your child.  If you have any questions please just ask your child's class teacher who will be happy to tell you more.