Instilling a Love of Reading

• Teachers read aloud to children EVERY DAY. This time is planned, timetabled and is a priority. Teachers find ways to make this time special, varied and exciting.
• We introduce ‘Helicopter Stories’ in our Bluebells class which is an accessible and child-centred approach for younger children to enjoy storytelling and story-acting. It helps them to see themselves as real authors and allows them to experience the excitement of creating their own stories.
• The adults in school display their favourite childhood book on the door of the room they work in, along with a recommendation of why they love it.
• The Book Bay (our school library) is themed to link to our school ‘Locality Driver’. Classes enjoy a timetabled library session per week, but also have the freedom to use the library at other times during the week to enhance learning.
• During library sessions, children engage in ‘Book Talk’ when they talk about what they are reading, recommend books to others and discuss their favourite authors.
• Our team of Year 6 librarians are responsible for running our lunchtime reading clubs, writing our half-termly reading newsletter to our families, maintaining the library space and supporting younger children to make choices about books they read.
• Every class discusses ‘Good readers can…’ within reading lessons, making the lifelong skills of reading accessible and explicit.
• When introducing or consolidating an aspect of grammar, we showcase it being used in an actual book and talk about how it impacts the reader. We signpost children to as many books as we can in this way, sharing extracts from books we have in the library and others that may hook their interest.
• Our children participate in reading events such as World Book Day, author visits and workshops, reading buddies, reading raffles, competitions and the Summer Reading Challenge.