Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is actively promoted and celebrated across the school. Each class has access to its own class library, regularly updated with a wide range of engaging texts, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, magazines, and newspapers, to encourage children to read widely and independently.
A dedicated Reading for Pleasure time is included on class timetables, giving children regular opportunities to choose and enjoy books in a relaxed and supportive environment. In addition, books are always available on tables throughout the day, allowing children to pick up a book during transitions, free time, or whenever they feel inspired to read.
Our Reading Ambassadors play a key role in fostering a reading culture. They help organise and maintain the libraries, recommend books, and inspire their peers to develop a lifelong love of reading.
Children throughout school receive praise in reading lessons in line with our school behaviour policy. Additionally, on a termly basis, children may receive a ‘Responsible Reader Award’ for showing a commitment to reading inside and outside school. They may also gain a ‘Moving Up’ certificate as they progress through reading stages or a Reading Champion certificate during Phase Praise assemblies. EYFS celebrate reading during ‘Open House’ where parents are able to join them.
Various other events promote a further love of reading throughout the year, including:
- World Book Day celebrations
- Pop-up Scholastics Book Fair, promoted at parents evening
- Annual visits from poets and authors
- Year 6 Leavers (bible presentation)
- Nursery parent library sessions
- Stay and Learn parent workshops with a focus on phonics or reading
- Class library competitions
- Author of the month
- Book sales
- A special gift of a books from Santa at Christmas time
Class Reader
Every class from Nursery to Year 6 benefits from a timetabled Class Reader (or story time) session, where children are immersed in a wide range of high-quality and diverse literature. These texts are carefully selected from our Read Aloud Curriculum, which includes stories, poems, and non-fiction texts that reflect a variety of cultures, experiences, and voices. In EYFS, story time introduces children to the joy of storytelling. Teachers read aloud daily, using expressive voices and gestures to engage young listeners. Songs, rhymes, and poems are used to help children build emotional connections to language and begin to gain awareness and control of their voices. In Key Stage 1 and beyond, children respond more personally to texts through discussion and reflection. Teachers model fluent reading and storytelling, helping pupils explore language, meaning, and character. Exposure to rich vocabulary supports spoken language and writing development.
Book Club
To further promote reading for pleasure and develop a reading community within school, children take part in regular Book Club sessions. These sessions provide a space for pupils to recommend books to their peers, share opinions, and discuss what they’ve enjoyed reading. Children are also introduced to new titlesavailable in their class libraries, helping to keep reading fresh, exciting, and relevant. Book Club encourages children to explore different genres, authors, and styles, while building confidence in talking about books and inspiring others to read. Within Nursery, children begin to develop an interest in books and begin to consider their favourite story.
Teachers as Readers
All staff show a passion for reading throughout school and take responsibility for promoting the love of reading from entry in Nursery. Staff show rigour in the reading curriculum, ensuring their pedagogy, reading environments and book chat are a high priority. Staff know children as readers well and read books relevant to them and their community, they are able to recommend books to children and talk about book they have read with confidence.
Class Libraries
