Reading At The Link School

We take a whole school approach to reading here at The Link School and we make learning to read confidently and competently a key priority from EYFS/Key Stage 1 right up to Key Stage 4. By making sure we all have reading as a priority, it means that we can transition our learners seamlessly from key stage to key stage and build upon prior learning on their reading journey.

Across all of the key stages we have a reading-led curriculum, whether that is phonics in the earlier years or challenging GCSE level texts that are read and analysed as the learners move up to key stage 4.

We believe that learners who enjoy reading are more likely to thrive in terms of their reading skills so we invest time and energy into creating stimulating, comfortable and creative environments for our young readers to relax and read, where they can immerse themselves fully in a story.  We have choice orientated reading for pleasure lessons for our older learners where they can choose what they read and in what format, in a relaxed environment where they are rewarded for their progress and effort.

For those learners who struggle with reading for whatever reason, we have bespoke interventions to support their individual needs so that we can get them back on track and help them to access stories and texts so  that they can flourish in their reading skills and their time at The Link School.

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Reading Case Study

To view our Reading Case Study highlighting activities from this term – Click Here

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Reading Guide for Parents

To read our handy parents guide to reading please click on the link below:

Reading Guide for Parents

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What are Vipers? 

VIPERS is an acronym to aid the recall of the 6 reading domains as part of the UK’s reading curriculum.  They are the key areas which we feel children need to know and understand in order to improve their comprehension of texts. 

VIPERS stands for 

Vocabulary 

Inference 

Prediction 

Explanation 

Retrieval 

Sequence or Summarise 

The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc.   

VIPERS is not a reading scheme but rather a method of ensuring that teachers ask, and students are familiar with, a range of questions.  They allow the teacher to track the type of questions asked and the children’s responses to these which allows for targeted questioning afterwards.