Highnam Church Of England Primary Academy

At Highnam, we believe that our children deserve a rich curriculum which encourages them to read an extensive range of books and other texts. Active encouragement of reading for pleasure is a core part of every child’s development and we know that extensive reading and exposure to a wide range of quality texts make a huge contribution to our pupils’ educational achievement. 

 Classroom Libraries

Throughout their time at Highnam, children will have the opportunity to borrow a wide range of books and other texts from the high-quality literature provided in each classroom library. These will include classic novels, modern fiction and picture books written by a diverse range of authors and illustrators, as well as a number of different non-fiction books, newspapers/magazines and poetry. Teachers make use of regular book rotations in order to stimulate high interest and engagement. We thank our wonderful PTA and parents for their support with funding which enables us to constantly review and improve our selection of books on offer to our children. 

 Within our class libraries, we celebrate a diverse range of authors through our 'Author of the Term' initiative. Below is a list of the authors that each class focus on.

Miss Coldrick's Book Recommendations

As you know, Miss Coldrick is an avid reader and loves it when pupils come to her office to take a book or two from her bookshelf (she loves it even more when they are returned with a book review). Here is a list of Miss Coldrick's most recommended books for each year group.

Reception and Year 1

Year 2

Year 3 and Year 4

Year 5 and Year 6

Recommended books for the summer 

Birthday Books

The children at Highnam are actively involved in curating our class libraries and often use the occasion of their birthday to kindly donate a 'Birthday Book' to the class. Children are able to donate a copy of a book that they really love and would recommend for their friends or choose from the Highnam Amazon wish lists (hyperlinks below) which contain books suggested for that year group chosen by the class teachers. 

Year 6 Amazon wish list
Year 5 Amazon wish list
Year 4 Amazon wish list
Year 3 Amazon wish list
Year 2 Amazon wish list
Year 1 Amazon wish list
Reception Amazon wish list

Daily Class Read

We believe that promoting a love of reading is one of the most important things we can do and so we pride ourselves on prioritising 20 minutes of our school day, every day, for enjoying stories as a whole class. This time is used to share high-quality texts with children so that they can immerse themselves in the wonderful adventures that books have to offer which are often beyond their own current reading levels. This time is not used as a teaching opportunity, instead being solely for the purpose of enjoying a story, and so the children are often encouraged to make themselves comfortable for the time. 

As staff, we aim to be the best 'reading role models' that we can for the children in our classes and we are especially thrilled that our Year 5 and 6 teachers are able to take part in the Cheltenham Festivals' Reading Teachers = Reading Pupils programme which introduces our teachers to some of the very best new literature that, in turn, can be used with the pupils. 

 When asked, this is what the children had to say about their class reader time:

"I really like it because it's relaxing at the end of the day and Mr Bailey makes me laugh when he does his funny voices!" - Jack; Age 6

"I love it because we put the fire on and it's nice and cosy and relaxing. I really like 'Twitch' because it has lots of secrets!" - Cassidy; Age 9 

Promoting Reading at Home

If you find that your child is a reluctant reader and are looking for ways to support and encourage them, please take a look at this leaflet which has some great ideas for promoting reading for pleasure for children of any age!

 Promoting reading for pleasure at home - @misterbodd 2020

Alternatively, the DFE have released "10 top tips for parents to support children to read" which you might find helpful.

Finally, Books for Topics have published a fantastic set of "Branching Out" posters which have a set of recommended books to read if you liked, for example, certain authors (Tom Gates, Michael Morpurgo or Julia Donaldson) or certain series (Harry Potter, Famous Five or Supertato). You can see some examples of the posters below:

Reading Events