Reading at St Joseph’s
Our
school is strongly committed to improving literacy and knows the importance of
reading for pleasure. There is strong evidence
to suggest that young people who read for pleasure daily perform better
academically. We want to encourage
children to enjoy reading and to read a wide range of good quality
literature.
As
a school we promote reading by providing stimulating environments across the
school with a range of material to support individual, group and class reading
opportunities. Reading opportunities take place with individuals as well as
group and whole class sessions across the curriculum which support and develop phonics,
fluency, and comprehension. Teachers keep records of the reading sessions
to monitor as well as track pupil development and engagement with reading. In addition to bringing home books from
reading sessions, each class has a weekly library session to allow them to
choose from a wide range of books.
Each
child has a purple Home Reading Record which is paramount to supporting reading
development. Each day all children are
expected to read for 10 minutes per day at home. These sessions and any other home reading should
be recorded in the purple record. In
Early Years to Year 3 parents should record the reading. In Years 4 to 6 the reading should be
recorded by the child – listing either a comment or new word with meaning and
sentence. Parents should sign these records.
Class teachers monitor these logs to ensure that children are reading
from a range of material.
In
addition to the physical books that children bring home, our school has access
to a digital platform called The Reading Cloud.
The
Reading Cloud is our online library and reading resource that allows pupils,
staff and parents to access our digital
book collection and read eBooks
and listen to audiobooks. Our school
library catalogue can also be viewed and pupils are encouraged to use this resource
to help with research, to write reviews about books they have read, blog about
what they are reading and their favourite authors and search for new books.
Each
child has a username and password
which has been either given to them or sent home by their class teacher. To
access the Reading Cloud and to find out more about the library, please go to
the News tab on the school website https://st-josephs.islington.sch.uk/.
Reading Cloud access information: READING CLOUD – Parental Note
We
hope that you find this facility to support your child’s reading, both
educational and enjoyable. If you have any questions please contact the school
librarian, Mrs Rooney, at office@st-josephs.islington.sch.uk.
