CARCLAZE COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL – AN ACADEMY
St Piran’s Close St Austell Cornwall PL25 3TF
Tel (01726) 74194
Email [email protected]
Text 07937986255
www.carclaze.cornwall.sch.uk
Head Teacher ~ Simon Pollard
Care Communicate Persevere and Sparkle
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Monday 20th February 2017
Accelerated Reader
Dear parents,
Firstly, we would like to thank you for your patience in returning your books before half term, in order to allow us to check and
relabel each of the new books in our library for our new system ‘accelerated reader’. I am delighted to say that the new system is
now up and running, with lots of books available for the children to choose from and the purpose of this letter is to give some
information as to how the system works.
Each of your children (from year two and up) has undertaken a ‘STAR’ assessment, which tests many aspects of their reading and
gets increasingly harder or easier depending on their responses to the previous questions. The test takes about 15 to 20 minutes and
at the end of this assessment, teachers receive detailed feedback about the child’s strengths and areas for development, as well as a
‘reading age’ and a ‘zone of proximal development/ZPD’. This ZPD gives children the ideal range of books that they should be
reading in order to develop at the best rate. Your child will therefore be coming home with a particular ZPD in their reading record,
which should match with the book that they have chosen.
When the children have finished reading their book, one of the key features of accelerated reader are the quizzes, which are a quick
and fun way to assess children’s understanding of the text they have just read. They complete these quizzes in school, when they
show the teacher their reading record, showing that they have completed the book (for some shorter texts the teacher may state that
they need to be read twice, to give time for the child to process them fully before quizzing). For each quiz the children receive a
percentage score which is retained on their online profile and scores them a certain number of points. Basically, the longer the book
takes to read, the more points it earns and the number of points a book earns is written on the label inside the book (100% =
maximum points!). These quizzes are an excellent way of checking that children are understanding what they read and there is very
strong evidence to show that children who read regularly and are achieving 85%+ on quizzes, make accelerated progress on their half
termly ‘STAR’ tests and therefore make excellent progress with their reading.
We will continue to share information with you as the initiative becomes a key part of our school’s approach to developing a love of
reading and will soon be passing on logins to use at home too, so that you can access your child’s assessments and help them to
choose their next books from home too. Apologies for the information overload and please feel free to contact me or your class
teacher if you have questions!
Many Thanks,
Jordan Dingle // Or should this be your name Simon Pollard????
Proud to be part of Peninsula Learning Trust, a company limited by guarantee.
Registered in England and Wales at Charlestown Road, St Austell PL25 3NR.
Number 07565242.
An exempt charity