Promoting a Love of Reading
Here at St James' Catholic Primary school, promoting a love of reading is paramount alongside our bespoke curriculum. We pride ourselves on delivering engaging, multi sensory Phonics sessions, ensuring that all children are involved, no matter their ability or needs. In addition to this, we ensure that each class has a book corner housing a vast variety of books that our children thoroughly enjoy. We ensure that we all have time in our weekly timetables for children to read quietly to themselves, read to a friend, read to buddies or just enjoy looking at pictures, developing a love for books and for reading.
To promote a love of reading at St James', we:
- Provide access to diverse literature
- Offer books our children want to read
- Participate in reading initiatives, i.e. World Book Day, Poetry & Writing Competitions, Stay and Read mornings involving parents/carers, online workshops and visits and trips to ensure that all children are having opportunities and experiences outside the classroom.
- Showcase books in our classrooms and Library
- Have a book club
- Encourage book choice by having a school library where children have the opportunity each day to choose books they want to read at home. We appoint Year 6 librarians to take the lead on this, helping the younger children choose appropriate books to take home.
- Turn it into a competition.
- Make reading a fun part of the timetable
- Have visits from authors
- Make reading part of school life by having: daily phonics sessions, daily Guided Reading sessions, reading interventions, reading for pleasure, voting for a story at the end of the day and reading with an adult in school.
- Involve all the staff
What is Phonics
Take a look at this flip book to give you an insight to what Phonics is and how we teach it at St James'
