Reading at Inglehurst Junior School

Here at Inglehurst, we LOVE reading! It is one of our 5 intentions because we know how important it is for children to read for purpose and to read for pleasure. That means reading runs through everything we do and children take every opportunity they can to choose a fantastic book from our beautiful, well-stocked library and sit down and read it somewhere. Our library is open every day before school, staffed by members of our Pupil Leadership Team, but children can visit throughout the day with their class teaching assistant to make sure they always have access to a book they want to read.

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“I love reading because it transports you to other worlds”

Chidalu, Year 5

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“I like reading because it is very calming and helps me de-stress”

Tia, Year 6

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“When I’m bored or sad, authors cheer me up by making me laugh”

Sylvie, Year 5

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“Reading keeps my brain working and I can learn so many things about the world”

Cerys, Year 5.

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“My favourite author is Dav Pilkey - I really like his books, Captain Underpants. My favourite books of all time are the Dogman books”

Nikodem, Year 6.

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Learning to Read at IJS

Guided Reading happens every day at 9am and children use this time to practise the skills necessary to be a good reader such as visualisation, inference and making predictions. As children become even better at reading, they combine these skills and apply them to more complex texts.

Some children need a little bit of extra help to become super readers and so they have the opportunity to work with some of our excellent teaching assistants in one of our reading interventions such as Fresh Start (phonics), Inference Training or BRP.

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Quizzing

Children particularly enjoy completing a quiz on a book after they have read it using our Accelerated Reader program. We use this program to make sure that books are well matched to the children’s reading ability and the more they quiz, the more their reading improves. Our children are very competitive and we enjoy hearing in weekly assemblies which class has quizzed the most (and achieved 100% of course!) and who has read the most words.

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These children have read over 100,000 words since the start of the year:
From Aquila: Ethan
From Argo: Tina
From Centaurus: Indy, Troy, Keira, Hafsa, Sylvie, Jordan, Armani, Aisha and Precious
From Hercules: Dominika, Andy, Betty, Dyhan, Elyas, Cadie-Mai, Tyler and Lyndon
From Phoenix: Raahila

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These children have read over 500,000 words since the start of the year:
From Centaurus: Ade and Annabelle
From Orion: Carly

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Chidalu from Hercules has read a whopping 1.2 million words already!

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Our top 3 reading classes are:
Hercules who between them have read over 3,400,000 words!
Centaurus who between them have read over 3,300,000 words!
Orion who between them have read over 2,600,000 words!

 

Reading events

Throughout the year we have lots of exciting events linked to reading. For example, we take part in the Our Best Book competition each year, invite authors into school and take part in live webinars with authors such as Jeff Kinney.

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Recommended Reads

Of course, it’s not just the children who enjoy reading here at IJS – all the staff love reading too! How many of these great books and authors have you tried?

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Mrs Lowe said, “It’s so hard for me to choose just one favourite book or one favourite author – I loved the Five Find-Outers books by Enid Blyton when I was at school and I still re-read them now! If you enjoy mystery stories about adventurous boys and girls you’ll really enjoy these books.”

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Mr Sherrard said, “One of my favourite books is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I love this book the most out of all the Harry Potter books because it is packed with all sorts of good stuff: time travel, scary dementors, powerful magic spells, friendship, fight scenes, good guys that are actually bad, bad guys that are actually good, and to top it all off - Hermione slaps Draco in the face! It’s so much fun! Lastly, I love idea of a map that shows where everyone is in the school. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a bit of magic in their lives”.

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Mr Evans agrees with Mr Sherrard. He added, “I enjoyed reading about all the spells the characters could perform - and who hasn't tried to cast a few themselves?!”

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Both Miss Thomson and Miss Seavers love Roald Dahl! Miss Thomson said, “I remember reading his books when I was at primary school and I love them just as much now. I love the fact his stories are funny, heart-warming and teach me many life lessons.” Miss Seavers added, “I love how he takes you into another world with his fantastic use of language and imagery. All of Roald's stories are blessed with exciting, unique and unforgettable characters, who are a joy to get to know when reading.”

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Best Friends by Jacqueline Wilson is Miss Clancy’s favourite book. She said, “I like this book because it is a good portrayal of a best friend relationship and what it is like. It also makes you recognise that all friends fall out sometimes and that it is not always sunshine and rainbows. This book may be good for those that might be having a difficult time with one of their friends to recognise that all friends fall out sometimes. I would recommend this book to everyone that has a best friend that they love spending time with!”

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Miss Chavda’s favourite children's author is Anthony Browne because he writes stories that make you think and there is always a hidden message in his stories. 

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Mr Butler’s favourite book is Kid Normal by Greg James & Chris Smith. He said, “I love the book because it is a story of trust, bravery and friendship. It is a very funny book which involves a giant wasp-human hybrid villain who plans to take over the world. There are lots of clever jokes but most of all, lots of heart. This book is for anyone who is thirsty for adventure!”

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Reading at home

Parents and carers are able to support us in developing readers who love to read by encouraging your children to read every day at home. Please listen to them read, and / or talk to them about their reading and sign their reading diaries so we can track their home reading. Reading diaries are collected in every week and all children who have read at least 5 times during the week are entered into a weekly prize draw to win a book of their own!

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If you’d like more information about what reading looks like at Inglehurst, please see the documents that are available below.​