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.
