Reading at S.M.I.T.H
At St. Michael in the Hamlet Primary School we are passionate about reading! We work hard to develop a rich reading culture so that every child discovers a love of reading that will stay will them throughout their lives. We have lots of different ways of promoting reading in every area of school life, for example –
- The Reading Hutch
- Family learning – The ‘Booknic’
- Lunch time book club
- The Reading Challenge
- The Read for Good Readathon
- Sip and Swap coffee mornings
- Lending Library
- Home reading challenge
Each year group uses high quality texts as part of a diverse book spine, which enables the children to experience a multitude of genres.
Each class has an inviting reading area and we have our own school library: children can access both of these at various times during the week.
We absolutely love reading here at S.M.I.T.H. 
Author Visit
We were so excited to welcome published author Zoe Antoniades to school to share her amazing books with us. Zoe led an assembly for KS1 and KS2 children, showcasing her books and talking to the children about her writing process. The children were fascinated by what Zoe had to say and many of them were able to buy a signed copy of one of her Cally and Jimmy books. We also have some copies in the school library for children to borrow if they would like to.
You can find out more about Zoe here http://www.zoeantoniades.com/
World Book Day 2024
We had a brilliant day celebrating reading and all things book related! Our families and staff made such a great effort as you can see from the pictures.
We launched a competition to celebrate this year’s World Book Day. The children had to recreate their favourite book covers. We had lots of incredible entries! These are the seven winners of the individual prizes –
The class with the most entries was 3B – they won themselves a special trip to hear the poet Michael Rosen share some of his stories and poems. Well done 3B! Everyone who took part was celebrated with a special popcorn and film event.
Every class used the text ‘The Barnabus Project’ as part of their English and foundation lessons. The children loved it and produced some brilliant work!
We also held a special ‘Tea with Captain Hook’ event for children who have worked really hard on their reading this year.
Click the link to see the Masked Reader, can you tell who’s who?
It was a brilliant day celebrating reading – a big thank you to everyone who worked so hard!
Library Club
Mrs Roberts and Mrs Hobson run a reading club every week in the library on a Tuesday from 3:15 – 4. All school families are welcome to attend. Look out for the menu of events coming for Spring term 2024!
Here are some families enjoying the book making activities.
Family Learning Autumn 2023
We had a great family learning ‘Booknic’. Key stage 1 children and their families were invited to join us and discover some delicious literacy snacks to go with some of our favourite picture books. The children worked with their adults to design their own literacy snack! My favourites were ribs to go with Funny Bones and sticky toffee pudding to go with Stick Man!
World Book Day 2023
We had a fabulous World Book Day on 2nd March! Everyone made a massive effort, with some brilliant outfits from children and adults!
The children were so inspired by our visiting author Khan Odita. We used his first book in every year group for our English and foundation lessons for the day.
Some children, who have been working really hard on their reading, were lucky enough (brave enough) to have tea with Miss Trunchbull!
We also launched the Book Hutch. A special place for books and magazines that our children can use at playtime.
PRIMARY_national_curriculum English
Pathways – reading and spoken language overview
The following documents show progression in reading across the school, describing what a child should be able to do to reach age related expectations at the end of each year group.
Lots of our children and families took part in the Read for Good readathon, raising money to provide books and storytellers for children in hospital by doing sponsored reads. We are very proud to say they raised over £1000!
Early Reading
We want our pupils’ passion and engagement with books to start from an early age. Take a look at the padlet for our reading challenges – this is where we capture our pupils and their families love of books and reading. It is a lot of fun!
https://padlet.com/vsheffield/vnhgfon6oc1gteye
Here are some pictures from our ‘Reading in Unusual Places’ competition 2022-
