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Our Wessex family of schools

Reading

Accelerated Reader and myON Online Reading Resources

We take reading very seriously at St. Mary's and recognise how important being a fluent reader is all areas of your education and life.  We track the reading habits and progress of the children at St. Mary's by using an online platform called Accelerated Reader.  

   

The links below will take you to guides on how to access an Accelerated Reader test once you have completed a book and other information about the scheme.

  • Leaflet about Dads supporting reading
    Having male role models for reading is something that has been shown to help children engage with books. Here are some top tips for male family members on how they can help inspire their children to read.

Accompanying the Accelerated Reader scheme is an online library of books through a platform called myON.  Pupils use the same log-in as Accelerated Reader to access the online content and, once linked with their accelerated reader account, can access the tests at the end books from the myON platform.  Click on the link below to take you to myON.

  • myON Online Reading Site
    Click here to go to the myON digital library of materials that work alongside the Accelerated Reader program. Pupils will need to use the same log-in for MyOn that they use for Accelerated Reader.

Resources for Home Learning

  • Authorfy Website
    A great website where pupils can access a wealth of content from a huge variety of different well-loved authors. There are videos of the authors explaining the motivation behind their books, how they came up with their characters, writing challenges and authors reading extracts from their titles. You will need to sign-up at access the content in the classroom section but it is all free!

  • Hay Literacy Festival
    Watch authors from Hay Festival Programme for Schools filmed over the last 4 years. There are 70+ fun filled and inspiring events to choose from including Ade Adepitan, David Baddiel, Gemma Cairney, Eoin Colfer, Julian Clary and Andy Stanton.

  • LitFilmFest Writing Advice Website
    This is a link to a YouTube channel containing a huge range of 20 minute video lessons covering a whole range of different writing techniques and challenges. This resource is aimed at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 pupils and a new video is uploaded at 10.30am every weekday.

  • Underlined
    If there’s a budding author in the family, this website is there to help young writers to plan, write and publish their first book. It includes content written by young writers themselves as well blog posts about publishing, choosing genres and developing characters.

  • Kid's Poems and Stories with Michael Rosen
    Michael Rosen's YouTube channel containing videos of Michael reading chapters from some popular books, reviews of books in our school library and advice on how to write in different genres.

Online Reading and Audiobook Resources

There are a number of different companies that offer free e-books and audiobooks for pupils to use on their home devices.  There is an excellent mix of classic and contemporary literature on offer.  Try listening to an audiobook at night when going to sleep -  a great way to relax.

  • Oxford Owl Free eBook Library
    Oxford Owl has a number of online reading materials that are suitable for ages 3-11 and searchable at different levels of reading ability. You will need to register for access but this is free to all parents. All of these books are tablet friendly and cover both fiction and non-fiction titles.

  • International Childrens Digital Library
    A free website with over 4000 classic and modern book titles in a range of different languages (pupils could try reading in French to help with their language studies - can they understand the story or recognise different words?). The titles are fully searchable and can be read on a tablet or screen.

  • Many Books Online
    A huge collection of online books for adults and children, organised into different categories. Look in the children's and young adults section to find a large range of classic and modern stories.

Suggested Reading Books for KS2

Authors reading their books on social media

Listening to fiction read by the author of the book is an excellent way to here how the author wants their work to be read.  It is a good way to pick up tips for your own writing and also for reading out aloud.  All of these resources are free.

  • Cressida Cowell
    The author of the popular 'How to Train your Dragon' series reads her first book. A classic story that will make you want to read more in the series. You could watch the movie of the same name and spot how the plot has been changed for the movie.

  • Jeff Norton
    Jeff is reading his book 'Alienated: Grounded at Groom Lake'. It is about anunusal type of school where all of the Aliens living in Area 51 are pupil. It is 5 star rated book on Amazon.

  • Justin Davies
    Justin is reading his book 'Help! I smell a monster' with a new chapter being uploaded every day. It follows Alice as she takes up a job in an agency to find monsters work suited to their talents. Another 5 star Amazon title!

Reading for empathy modern book collections:

https://www.empathylab.uk/2020-read-for-empathy-collections  

Link to the Carnegie medal website. This has lists of modern high quality fiction for children.

https://carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/cilip-carnegie-medal-shortlist-2020/