Reading

We are: Visionary

           Determined

           Enthusiastic

Reading is at the heart of our school curriculum.  By the time our children leave Cavendish Junior School, we aim for our children to have the skills to achieve anything.  At the core of this is reading.  We want our pupils to read fluently, and with good understanding, allowing them to apply this skill in every subject every day for whatever future challenges they experience.  Our children read for pleasure as well as for gathering information; through reading, we wish for our pupils to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.  

For our full Reading Policy, please click here. 

What initiatives do we use to keep our children excited about reading?

Curiosity Cabin

We try to encourage our pupils to read as much as possible around school and share their opinion on books.  We have created a Curiosity Cabin which acts as an additional reading resource.  Here, the books are not from Accelerated Reader, and pupils can choose any book they like and enjoy spending time in the space.  The Curiosity Cabin is available at breaks and lunchtimes and is often used as a learning space for writing opportunities. 

The Book Bus and Waterstones

We encourage pupils to buy books and access a wide range of texts as much as possible.  We arrange for the Book Bus to come to our school so that pupils can buy new books at a discounted rate.  We also take all our pupils at Christmas to Waterstone's in Chesterfield town centre to buy a book as a gift from Cavendish.  This is always such a wonderful experience for the children. 

Hot Chocolate and Den Building

We encourage our pupils and parents to get involved with evenings centred around Reading for Pleasure.  Here we offer Hot Chocolate or Den building as activities, and pupils are encouraged to come back to school and read with their peers or parents.  This is a great way of inspiring parents to read with their children, as well as encouraging children to love reading and get absorbed in something a little different. 

Author Visits

We have at least one author visit a year for our pupils.  This inspires our pupils and links to our Cavendish Code (We are: Aspirational). Pupils are also exposed to further texts.

The role of the librarian

Librarians play a key role in our school.  Not only do they keep our bookshelves organised, but they also lead the Reading for Pleasure campaign across school.  Librarians help to organise our Poetry Slam, as well as our Book Club.  They carry out personal initiatives each year to make sure that reading is always prominent in our school.

Book Club

The librarians run a Book Club once a week in the Curiosity Cabin at lunchtime.  Here, books are recommended and there is opportunity to read texts out loud. This links to our Cavendish Code (we are: Aspirational, we are: Enthusiastic).

Poetry Slam

Once every term, we run a poetry slam in the Curiosity Cabin.  Here, pupils are able to perform their personal poetry, or choose to read from a poem that they have found.  This is a fun and engaging way to get our pupils to perform and gain confidence in their reading skills. This links to our Cavendish Code (we are: Aspirational, we are: Enthusiastic, we are: Visionary).

Reading Recommendations

Once a week, Cavendish holds an assembly for reading recommendations.  Pupils must fill out a recommendation form and hand it to the Headteacher.  They will then have opportunity to read this out in assembly and read a small section of their chosen book.  This book will then be placed on the shelf of the Curiosity Cabin with 3 copies bought so that pupils can take it out and read for pleasure also. This links to our Cavendish Code (we are: Enthusiastic).

What do parents need to know and how can you help?

Reding at home with your children is vitally important.  This helps with fluency and understanding of the text.  It also models to our children that adults read as well and it is a life long skill. We send home a reading card each week.  We ask that you read and sign to say that you have read with your child at least 3 times each week.  This can be more, but our minimum expectation is 3 times a week. If you are struggling with this commitment, we will then find time within school to catch up with this additional reading opportunity. 

We use a programme called Accelerated Reader for our pupils to read from.  This means that your child has a book specifically aimed at their stage in reading.  Once they have finished the book, there will be a 'quiz' on it in school to check their understanding.  If they successfully read 3 books on a level, they can then move up and progress through the Accelerated Reader programme. 

We also provide another book from our Curiosity Cabin.  This book is simply for pleasure and is not based on ability. Children have the opportunity to change this book every couple of weeks. 

Finally, we send home spellings each week.  This supports our Reading policy and we kindly ask that you encourage your child to learn these spellings each week - they will be tested each Monday morning.