Welcome to the very first post on Moorlands Primary Academy's new reading blog! We're going to be using it to share with you all the exciting reading we do in and around school, as well as post book reviews, author interviews, competitions and many other exciting things. We'd love to hear what you think about it so please feel free to comment.
Last term was a really busy time for reading at Moorlands, with lots going on right across the school. We had two fantastic authors come and visit us, Matt Dickinson in September and Neil Arksey in December. Both started their visits by delivering a fantastic assembly and then spending some time talking to children in different classes. They were very happy to share reading tips with parents and sign books at the end of the day.
We also launched our really successful #mymumreads campaign on Twitter and had over 100 photos sent in. A huge thank you to everyone who took part. Our oldest participant, Doris, was aged 102 years at the time her photo was taken!
Lots of children in Key Stage Two completed the Summer Reading Challenge and received their certificates and medals from Gorleston Library A huge well done to all of them! However, next year, we want even more children to have a go. It's a huge amount of fun and a brilliant way to keep reading over the summer holidays.
Year Five also started their Chatterbooks reading group. There was much excitement when they found out that they would be appearing in a national children's magazine after Christmas! We're planning to introduce Chatterbooks across other year groups very soon.
Some classes also introduced different ideas to encourage the children to talk about books and reading more during the day. Mr Ruddick's class held an extreme reading competition which was extremely popular with his pupils.
Mrs Manifold organised a wonderful Reading Cafe in the last week of term which was based on a book by Michael Morpurgo called The Best Christmas Present In The World. Lots of parents came and enjoyed spending time working on craft activities with their children.
Mr Biddle's class adopted a Class Author, the Children's Laureate Chris Riddell, for the term, and introduced some Mystery Books. They've already been read by about half the class and are still Top Secret (apparently!).
Each class also had the chance to order some new books for their classroom library. They all proved extremely popular and are being read at every opportunity! Below is a photo showing some of Mr Allen's class enjoying their new books.
Members of the School Reading Council have also started to take boxes of books out into the playground so children can do extra reading at lunchtime if they wish.
Next term we've got lots more great reading-related activities going on. We're really proud to be one of only twelve schools in the country involved in trialling a new EmpathyLab project, which is all about developing understanding of other people and their feelings.
A group of eight children have been asked to be on the judging panel for the Peter's Book Award and are currently working their way through the list of books. Some clear frontrunners have emerged already! Norfolk School Library Service have kindly invited the children to visit Norwich Castle in March to cast their votes.
We've also got the school library van coming to visit us in January and the Chatterbooks reading group are off to visit Gorleston library. The pupils from the Year Three and Four classes will also be visiting soon after.
Early Years and Key Stage One are being visited by a storyteller towards the end of the term. We will let you know who it is as soon as we've confirmed the booking. The first meeting of the School Reading Council will take place in early in January, and they're bound to have lots of fantastic ideas about how we can make reading even more enjoyable in school. Finally, and perhaps most excitingly, the furniture and books for the NEW school library should be arriving very soon.
