Reading in our School
Bedtime Stories
What a success our first 'Bedtime Stories' event was! The children had a lovely time drinking hot chocolate, eating biscuits and listening to some wonderful stories ready by staff and parents. Thank you so much to Ms Brown, Ms Rees, Mrs Wright, Mr Wright, Miss Cooke, Mrs Midwinter, Ms Gillone and Mrs Sherrington for all of your help and wonderful reading. Mrs Palmer
Tabby, ‘It was fun. My favourite book was The Fiend Next Door. Well done mum!
Rachel, ‘It was really good, I loved it! It wasn’t just for young children, if was for the older ones as well which I really liked. It’s not something that we usually do. I would definitely like to do it again. I can’t believe how much fun I had and love the book that I won.’
Sunflowers like reading too...
This week lots of children in school have been taking very special care of their fostered sunflower. As you know, our wonderful Gardening Club helped by planting and propagating seeds and then have handed them over for fostering to every child in school for them to look after.
Children have been tending, watering, playing music and reading to their sunflower (lots have been named) all with the intention of helping them grow. We even talked about the scientific process of photosynthesis in Key Stage 2 and how talking and breathing out CO2 is helpful in the production of oxygen. King Charles would be proud of us!
Reading in Owl Class
Reading Shed
It's so lovely when the Reading Shed can be reopened in the Spring so that the children enjoy a quiet time reading outside
World Book Day
Well! World Book Day this year was another huge success! This year we tried something new and dressed up as vocabulary for the day. The children and staff looked tremendous in their interesting vocabulary costumes, I was very impressed with the originality of our 4 winners’ costumes.
Well done to:
Evelyn – Kaleidoscopic
Max – Discombobulated
Harrison – Bushwhacked
Rachel – Patriotic
It was wonderful to walk around school to see the children creating a class dictionary and engaging intently with their learning. After break, the children took part in a ‘book swap’ which went down a treat! It was a delight to see them choosing a new book and reading it over the course of the day. We were visited by Mrs Smith, our school Governor and she presented each class with a book to read! Thank you Mrs Smith.
In the afternoon, the children explored the book ‘The Lost Words’ and created their own acrostic poem for a class page Fox, Hedgehog, Squirrel and Owl. These were shared in our World Book Day assembly and they are absolutely terrific! These are going to be displayed in school to remind the children of our WORDerful Day!
Overall, a fantastic day was had by staff and children. Thank you for your continued support with school and your child’s learning journey.
Miss McKelvie
Reading Champions
There is another great reading event happening in school! Hedgehog and Fox class are working together to enjoy and improve their reading aloud.
Miss Mckelvie tells us -
Most of the Y3 children have volunteered their time to listen to Fox class read during break time on a Friday. They are already doing a superb job!
Bella, ‘My partner used her phonics really well to sound out tricky words!’
Eloise, My partner read their book very well!’
Paris, ‘My partner sounded out tricky words and I helped them too.
Reading Around School
It has been a wonderful start to the Spring Term and I am delighted to share with you how we are raising the profile of reading in and around school. The children have been enjoying a Drop Everything And Listen (DEAL) session at the end of the school day, where they can vote on a class reader to listen to in KS1 and listen to an extended text over several weeks in KS2. These have been very successful and afterwards the children have then enjoyed reading the books in their own time.
“I enjoy DEAL because we get to sit down and get comfy and listen to new stories.” said Fox Class
“I love listening to the adults read because it is a nice calm way to end the day and it is fun.” said Hedgehog Class.
“We like it a lot because we get to listen to stories we have chosen. It is like a calm down time before we go home after a busy day. We also get to vote on the books so it is fair!” said Squirrel Class.
“It is a relaxing, calm time at the end of the day to listen to a story and I enjoy it because I like reading.” said Owl Class.
It has been wonderful to be part of such a successful activity and I can’t wait to sit in and listen too!
The Reading Champions initiative has also been a great way to encourage children to read for pleasure at home. The Reading Champions are announced at the end of every half term and receive a special certificate that is displayed within school. To be a Reading Champion your child must read at least 3 times a week at home and this is to be signed off by an adult in the home school reading record. This is monitored within each class. I was delighted to see so many children across the school achieve
this last half term! I am currently working alongside WSPA to improve our library space and for children to enjoy using it as a valued resource so watch this space!
Miss McKelvie
English Lead
