Hertford Junior School

Three times a week each class has a ‘Whole Class guided reading session’. During a session every child in the class will be reading the same text. Reading aloud builds a culture of expressive reading. There will be numerous opportunities for children to read during these sessions including whole class reading aloud (including choral reading and echo reading), paired reading (including ping pong reading) and reading independently. During these sessions we follow Reading VIPERS. VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise) and links directly to the National Curriculum.  They are the key areas which we know children need to understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts. 

Each classroom has the Reading VIPERS displayed and the class teacher will make explicit links to the skill the children will be learning about. This gives all children across the school a common language to discuss their reading knowledge and understanding. During these sessions we use high-quality engaging texts covering a wide range of genres, a mix of extracts, short texts, whole books, poetry, song lyrics and non-fiction. 

These sessions allow opportunities for children to engage in higher order questioning. They also enable those children that find the mechanics of reading difficult to stay motivated to become fluent readers by helping them experience high-quality texts, that they might not be able to access independently, as well as developing their comprehensive skills.  

Children who are not making expected progress are rapidly identified. We have a variety of ways to support these children. We believe that equality isn’t treating everyone the same, it is ensuring all of our children have what they need to succeed. We use bespoke interventions tailored to children’s needs that are designed to improve a range of skills. For example, if a child is struggling with their decoding of words and the mechanics of reading they might take part in a rigorous phonics programme. If a child needed to develop their fluency they might take part in a paired reading programme.  

These interventions are in addition to taking part in the whole class guided reading sessions. It is really important that all children remain in the whole class guided reading sessions to enable them to experience and discuss rich, imaginative texts. Not only will it introduce them to and familiarise them with challenging vocabulary but it will enable their comprehension and inference skills to still further develop. During these sessions we have a variety of ways to support these children in staying motivated and engaged: they may have a ‘Reading Buddy’, someone who is sat beside them role modelling and reading aloud to them; the teacher or TA might read with a specific group of children taking turns; a group of children might pre-read ahead of the rest of the class. 

We intentionally timetable reading for pleasure sessions. These give children the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. Interestingly, reading for pleasure also improves children's well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity, and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others

We ensure that children have opportunities to read for pleasure:

• Whole school Friday afternoon focus on reading for pleasure 

• Weekly visits to our school library and the option of using the library at break times and lunchtimes  

• Class book corner with a diverse collection of books 

• Reading Ambassadors from each class who recommend books to others

• Biannual book fair 

• We are launching Rock Up and Read sessions inviting families to join us on some Friday afternoons so we can read together.

• We are launching Track my read to celebrate reading out of school. 

Diversity and inclusion are topics where books can be an invaluable aid in helping children learn about different cultures and experiences. Children need to learn about all aspects of diversity and feel empowered to discuss what makes us all unique, valued and respected. More so than ever it is crucial to share with children books and texts which represent diverse and varied experiences and cultures. We are currently working on creating diverse bookshelves that are full of books to help build understanding, empathy and tolerance of our different backgrounds. We want to share books with our children within which they can all see themselves, and which reflect our world community in all of its diversity. 

We have a 'Read around the world' display in the main corridor which showcases books from a diverse range of cultures that children can borrow to read both in school and at home. 

We teach the children to become enthusiastic, lifelong writers, which is why it features in all subjects. We intend our children to have developed a love of writing and to be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively through the written word now, and for their future success, both within and beyond education.  

The Hertford Child is taught to develop their communication skills and take ownership and see themselves as real writers and authors with real audiences.  

We want to show children that writing for a range of purposes can be informative and wildly imaginative enough to take them beyond their own lives and experiences and travel the world to enjoy its diversity. We do this by providing a variety of language-rich high-quality hooks that prepare ALL learners, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to achieve their full potential in writing. 

We are teaching our writing through the Power of Reading at Hertford Schools. This is a book- based approach devised by the CLPE and rooted in evidence. Each year group studies a high quality text which is the hook that inspires the children to write for different purposes as they read the book together. 

Children who are not making expected progress are rapidly identified. We have a variety of ways to support these children. We believe that equality isn’t treating everyone the same, it is ensuring all of our children have what they need to succeed. We use bespoke interventions and in class support tailored to children’s needs that are designed to improve a range of skills. 

All children must have the opportunity and the encouragement to reach their full potential.  

Children will be supported in a range of ways appropriate to their bespoke needs:  

• Pre teaching 

• Catch up support 

• Bespoke interventions 

• The use of Communicate in Print as a scaffold to writing with visual stimuli 

• Overlays where needed and appropriate  

• Talking tins for verbal rehearsal and memory support 

• Visual stimuli 

• Aspirational learning partners  

• The use of technology such as Clicker, Nessy and word processing (In KS2) 

Diversity and inclusive texts used to facilitate writing can be an invaluable aid in helping children learn about different cultures and experiences. Children need to learn about all aspects of diversity and feel empowered to discuss what makes us all unique, valued and respected. More so than ever it is crucial to share with children books and texts which represent diverse and varied experiences and cultures. We are currently working on ensuring that writing stimuli is drawn from books that help to build understanding, empathy and tolerance of our different backgrounds. We want to share texts and writing stimuli with our children within which they can all see themselves, and which reflect our world community in all of its diversity. We deliberately select our Power of Reading texts to provide a mirror and window on the world.  

We carefully ensure there is progression of knowledge and skills when teaching writing. See our progression documents below.

We have high expectations for handwriting and presentation which builds on children's ownership and pride as learners. We have recently changed how we teach handwriting and now follow the pen pals  scope and sequence across Hertford Schools.

Learning spellings doesn't have to be boring! Have a look at this little video to remind yourselves of the different ways you can INDEPENDENTLY pratice and learn your spellings. 

The video may take a little time to load initially but then it's good to go!

We ensure that spelling is taught consistently using Spelling Shed resources to teach and practise weekly spellings. There are taught sessions three times a week.  We have established progression across the year groups and interventions for children who are working below age related expectations. We encourage children to practise their spellings, using their individual log in on spelling shed, as part of the homework expectations. 

Click on the image below to visit the spelling shed website.