At St Joseph’s School we promote reading through a variety of ways which all contribute to our whole school reading culture. We create an environment where reading is championed, valued, respected, and encouraged. Reading lies at the heart of the curriculum, and it’s of the upmost importance to a child’s personal, social, and academic success, as well as their general wellbeing.
 |
 |
Some of the methods we use are:
- Challenge pupils to read a diverse range of books.
- Reading at the core of the curriculum.
- Link reading to other areas of the curriculum.
- Create appealing reading spaces throughout the school.
- Get adults leading by reading.
- Encourage reading during the school holidays.
- Celebrate books through national initiatives
- Well resourced school library
- School Book fairs
- Visits to the local library/librarian visiting the school
Classroom Reading Environments
Each classroom has a dedicated reading corner designed to engage the children. The reading corners all follow a theme linked to sustainability with tranquil environments chosen. For example, a reading garden area, under the sea theme or a jungle.
Reading for pleasure books
Within each reading corner our newly we have selected a collection of high-quality reading for pleasure books for every year group. They are displayed on ‘front facing’ book cases to inspire children and help them choose books they are excited to read.
We have ensured that we:
- Are not displaying too many books at once
- Refresh the display frequently
- Make the books attractive and easy for children to find.
These books are high quality relevant texts selected from:
- Librarians and school curriculum advisers
- Book Trust recommendations
- Pie Corbett Reading Spine
The books chosen for each book case include:
- Some familiar texts
- Some more challenging texts
- Some texts at lower reading age to ensure access for all children
- A range of genres: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Traditional Tales and Poetry
At the end of this year we will be selecting some ‘transition’ books to move up with the children from their current year group.
The school library
We have created a central well stocked school library consisting of book banded books for KS2 children and a range of topic based books for all children.
EYFS and KS1 Children visit the library for small group activities and in KS2 the children will change their book banded book and select a new book weekly. They use the online library barcode system to do this.