Welcome to Harlands Community
Primary & Nursery School
The Reading Miles Scheme
If a child reads 6 times to an adult in a week they can earn themselves 300 Miles.
If they do this for 6 weeks they will earn their first certificate.
Reading Miles can be recorded by parents using the following link.
Our Reading Miles Scheme is to encourage and motivate children to read at home as much as possible.
Whilst we strongly encourage reading independently at home for pleasure, for the reasons described above, we also greatly value the importance of children reading aloud and discussing their reading with an adult. Therefore, reading miles should be rewarded for reading with an adult only.
Below, you will find ‘VIPERS’ question stems, to help with targeted questioning, after your child has read to you – these will support you in asking a variety of different types of questions. Below are more details on the VIPERs method.
Why is reading important?
Giving pupils reading skills enables them to access material in all curriculum areas, and provides a foundation for their learning throughout their school career and beyond.
In becoming great readers, children need to employ a range of reading cues, prompted by adults, to monitor, correct and make sense of their own reading.
More competent, confident and fluent readers still need opportunities to apply comprehension skills in more complex texts, through discussion with adults and opportunities to practise other skills whilst reading aloud, such as reading with pace and expression.
Our Certificates?
Bronze Certificate 2000 Miles
Silver Certificate 4000 Miles
Gold Certificate 6000 Miles
Titanium Certificate 8000 Miles
Platinum Certificate 10,000 Miles
Reading Vipers
Children are explicitly taught the skills of reading (outlined in the National Curriculum and the KS1 and KS2 test domains) through the use of VIPERS which were created by Rob Smith (The Literacy Shed).
The Reading Vipers can be used by both KS1 and KS2 with a little adaption. The main difference being in the S.
Sequence - KS1
Summarise - KS2
In KS1, ‘Explain’; is not one of the content domains, rather it asks children why they have come to a certain conclusion, to explain their preferences, thoughts and opinions about a text.
In KS2, the Explain section covers the additional content domains of 2F, 2G and 2H which are not present in KS1.
What are Vipers?
VIPERS is an anagram 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.
The 6 domains focus on the comprehension aspect of reading and not the mechanics: decoding, fluency, prosody etc. As such, 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.
reading-vipers.pdfReading Vipers Key Stage 1
In Key Stage One children reading skills are taught and practised using the VIPERS during whole class reading sessions
Reading-VIPERS-Question-Stems-KS1.pdf
Reading Vipers Key Stage 2
In Key Stage Two children reading skills are taught and practised using VIPERS during whole class reading sessions.
Reading-VIPERS-Question-Stems-KS2.pdf