Pippa Sutcliffe, Head of English, describes the steps we have taken to put reading firmly top of the agenda across the school and, with World Book Day coming up, she shares the exciting plans for our Book Week.
Reading has been, is and always will be a key focus at Westbourne House. However this year, we wanted to raise the profile of reading to clearly demonstrate to staff, parents and pupils that we take our reading seriously.
These days, every English lesson in years 5 and 6 starts with five minutes of reading and during Catch Up (prep time from 5 -5.30pm) pupils are now accustomed to reading when they have finished their prep.
On Mondays, we have ‘paws to read’ which is when Nancy, Mr and Mrs Barker’s black Labrador, comes into the library and the Year 5s read to her. The children love stroking Nancy’s head whilst reading, and her presence is reassuring. These weekly sessions are really popular and, with Nancy’s help, the children have become much more confident at reading out loud.
We have also looked for ways to encourage our children to experiment with different genres and authors. In English, we have introduced a monthly meet where the girls and
boys separately discuss the books they have been reading. From these sessions, we are gathering ‘recommended reads’ and children are discovering texts that might not
normally appeal to them.
In addition to this, we have rearranged the library. We’ve made it cosier and regrouped the books according to genre to challenge the children’s preferences. We are finding that pupils are ‘tasting’ authors that they would not have tried in the past. Also to encourage a widening in the children’s taste in literature, we have added less familiar, yet wonderful books to the stock in our library.
This brings us on to Book Week, which starts on Monday 19 February. Because we value reading so much at Westbourne House, one day – World Book Day - is not enough for us. As you will read below, we have created many different reading activities over a week to create joy, fun and excitement around reading. Nancy will be working overtime in the library, the children will of course have a fun day dressed as characters from books, parents will be storytellers in the Pre-Prep, there will be storytelling in the Prep School library, an extreme reading competition, short stories read by the teachers during Catch Up and the older children will be reading to the younger ones. There are two planned DEAR moments (when the whole school stops to 'drop everything and read' plus author visits and competitions.
May all our children enjoy the precious gift of reading!
To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.
Victor Hugo
Westbourne House Book Week
Extreme Reading – over half term
Ask a parent to take a photo of you reading a book in an exciting, tricky, different or fun place and either post to our Facebook or Instagram accounts @westbournehouseschool and tag it #extremereadingWHS or email it to psutcliffe@westbournehouse.org (Prep) or preprepoffice@westbournehouse.org (Pre-Prep).
Dress Up Day – Monday 19 February
We start the week with a dress up day at both the Pre- Prep and Prep Schools. The theme for the Prep School is Toad of Toad Hall/Wind in the Willows or Alice in
Wonderland. The Pre-Prep has the same theme and it also includes Beatrix Potter.
Storytime
Spend your lunchtime in the library engrossed in the wonderful world of orphan Anne Shirley. Mrs Whincop is reading Anne of Green Gables.
Teachers will be reading during Catch Up, Pre-Prep teachers will be reading in storytime sessions, and parents are coming in to read their favourite stories to the Pre-Prep children on Thursday.
Years 6 – 8 children (10 – 13 year olds) will also be reading to the Pre-Prep children (2 – 7 year olds).
Author Visits
Tuesday 20 February: Author Ali Sparkes speaks to various age groups across the school: Pre-Prep, Years 3-6, and Years 5-6. Ali Sparkes won the Blue Peter Book Award
in 2010 with Frozen In Time and she has written more than 30 books.
Friday 23 February: Author Paul Rockett, a very talented non-fiction writer, is coming to speak to various age groups across the school.
Drama Workshops
In the Pre-Prep, the children will take part in drama workshops based on a book they are
reading in class.
Never be Without!
Everyone needs to have a reading book with them at all times, including staff. We also have two DEAR moments where we have to… Drop Everything And Read.
Beware the Reading Catchers!
Reading Catchers will be around all week taking photos of reading going on in both the Prep and Pre-Prep.
Starting Conversations about Books
All children in Years 3 – 8 will write a postcard/letter to an adult relative about a book that they have just read over the half term.
Library Events
There will be a big display of our extreme readers in all sorts of strange, interesting and fun poses.
In the Pre-Prep, there will be book quizzes and competitions, displays, favourite book activities and book swaps.
What’s your favourite book: Come and write your favourite book onto the spines of the books on our bookshelf wallpaper.
Paws to Read: Nancy (the Headmaster’s dog) will be coming into the library each day during Book Week (except for Wednesday and Saturday) for different year groups (Years 3 – 8) to have the opportunity to read to her.
Who is Hiding Behind the Book?
Enter the teachers’ selfie competition: a display of photos of teachers hiding behind their favourite book will be put up in the inner hall and you will be able to guess who is behind the book. There will be prizes.