Love of reading
At St Joseph's we aim to foster a life-long love of reading in every child. Books are at the heart of our wider curriculum where reading is continuously modelled as a source of information and enjoyment. High quality books are selected as class texts which form the basis of our English curriculum. These are carefully selected for their use of vocabulary, complexity of plot and diversity of subject matter and genre. Texts are also used as the basis for information in subjects such as history, Science and Geography. We also of course have a very important book at the heart of our Re curriculum- the Bible.
We place a great importance in children being read to, especially during the stages of early reading development. It is this concept which drives our policy of sending home books to enjoy 4 days a week. These are books which children can have read to them or share with a sibling, with their school reading practice book going home once a week for additional practice and celebrating success. Each class has a book corner which is a focal point in the classroom where children can visit to select their books for reading at home.
All children across school are read to regularly in story time sessions which allow children to relax and enjoy being read to by an adult. Staff in school talk to children regularly about what books they enjoy and any wider reading they do- many older children follow regular blogs or read online content on a specific topic. We discuss specific authors or book series which children like and ensure we reflect these in our selection of books in school. Children are also encouraged to recommend books to each other. It is a huge financial commitment to provide good quality books across school and we are greatly supported in this endeavour by The Friends of St Joseph's fundraising group, most recently with a very successful St George's Day Fair.
We encourage parents to read with their child regularly and this can be logged in their reading records which help us build up a picture of each child as a reader. We have held parent workshops to explore the benefits of reading with their children and share ideas on how to fit it in to busy family life. Please use the link below to read the leaflet given to parents at the meeting.
We have an annual celebration of reading when we mark World Book Day- children and staff have a great time dressing up as their favourite characters and it is a great opportunity to remind us of the joy that reading can bring.
We encourage families to utilise our school book swap which enables children to bring in a book they have finished reading and swap for another-free of charge. On World Book day this year we had a launch event which saw hundreds of children go home with a book they couldn't wait to read. The scheme continues to be used widely across school.
We want our children to be role models of readers to other children and give opportunities for older children to read to younger pupils in school. We have groups of Year 3 and 4 children reading weekly to Nursery children and Yr 5 and 6 readers hosting a story time event at lunchtimes on a Friday. We want all of our children to be aware of how much we use our reading skills in our daily life and so launched a #everybodyreads campaign encouraging families to send in photographs of adults in the family reading as part of their everyday life, showing how they will use the skills the learn now everyday for the rest of their lives.
We also have the 100 Books Challenge which is a selection of books which children are encouraged to read at each stage of their time in school. When children have read/or heard all of the books on their year group list they receive a highly cherished I Love Reading badge to display proudly on their uniform. Many children have received this already after launching the challenge in the Spring term. Below you'll see Finn from Nursery proudly displaying all of the books he has read from the Nursery list, a group of year 1 children who have all earned their badge and we know many more are working on their lists as we speak.
