Reading for Pleasure

Reading for Pleasure at Lakeside Primary Academy

At Lakeside Primary Academy we highly value the importance of Reading for Pleasure. 

Reading for Pleasure is any reading that is done for enjoyment. Whilst we know that reading has huge educational benefits, we believe the benefits of reading for pleasure go far beyond this and stretch throughout a child's life.

Reading for pleasure is not just seen as a classroom based activity. We enjoy books at Breakfast Club, in our Forest School and at lunchtimes and playtimes.

How do we promote Reading for Pleasure?

As a school we work hard to promote reading for pleasure, including:

• Designated Reading Areas in each classroom, with organised and age-appropriate texts. Books are organised and refreshed to keep children interested, including a bright, engaging and inviting school library, with books organised in to fiction, non-fiction, subject and genre to make it easy for children to use independently.
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• Story Time  - A designated time at end of every day to share a class book 

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• Story Bears to go home for a child to read to, encouraging children to read to an adult

• Story Sacks and Author Visits: most recently we had Phil Sheppard visit to promote his books and reading for pleasure, and read aloud to the children. We hope to arrange more author visits in the future.
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We also hold many whole-school reading events throughout the year, including:

• World Book Day - as a school we select a text to all base our work around, resulting in a whole school display and chance to share our work with each other. Recent books have been Flotsam by David Weisner and Chalk by Bill Thomson.

• Whole-School Book challenges This has included the Reading Miles Challenge where children were encouraged to read at home and complete a Reading Miles booklet. Children who completed the "miles" were rewarded with certificates and a trophy.

• Reading Buddies where older children share a book with a younger child - a great way to build confidence in reading aloud.
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• Popcorn and PJ's reading event - time dedicated for children to enjoy reading together in a relaxed and cosy environment, in their PJ's (with snacks too!) This event takes on many guises throughout the year and has included Easter and Christmas themed events and a Reading Picnic on the field in the Summer.

• Local Library links - we are lucky that we have a library fairly local to school, we have had visits from librarians to promote the public library and also sign children up with their own library cards. The local library also provide Book clubs for more able readers.

• Travelling Book Fair - a chance for children to purchase discounted books from Boggledy Book Fair, which is a fantastic opportunity for children to buy a new book for as little as £1. We have been lucky to gain many free books for the school as a result of fantastic sales.

• Subscription to First News - to encourage our children to read about world news in a safe and child friendly way. We advocate reading in all forms - books, magazines, newspapers, comics and also encourage reading stories online.
• Bilingual Books - We are a multicultural school and the books we offer reflect this. We have books (including audio books) of a wide range of languages, we also have books that reflect main characters of different races and religions. It is important for children to see themsleves reflected in the characters of books they are reading.

Here are some great websites you can try at home:

• www.astoryforbedtime.com.
• www.booktrust.org.uk.
• www.storylineonline.co.uk
• www.oxfordowls.co.uk
• https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/

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