Reading For Pleasure
At St Michael's we believe that reading is not just about learning the mechanics of decoding and comprehensions, it is about fostering a love for reading. That is why we are proud to be a Reading for Pleasure school. In 2022 we took part in the Open University Reading for Pleasure programme which helped us to understand the importance of reading for enjoyment and became the starting point for many activities and projects. We have invested heavily in contemporary fiction for all age groups and built book nooks around school for children to have easy access to these texts. Each teacher chose a contemporary author to promote within school and we created St Michael's author of the year awards. The children were so engaged with these authors and voted for their winners, some of which sent in personal messages of thanks. We knew that the impact from our initiatives had a massive impact on the culture of reading at school and we are determined to keep this as one of our priorities for all children, through yearly author of the year awards, daily story time and updating our book nooks with the latest books.
One of our author of the year nominees - A M Dassu - sent a video in for the children to watch explaining all about her wonderful books!
Author of the year 2024 nominees
Our St Michael's Author of the Year 2024 competition is now in full swing. The children are really amazed to have heard from many of the chosen authors about being nominated for the awards. Teachers are currently sharing stories around school and promoting their books to children.
Some of our current Reading for Pleasure class stories
We have really enjoyed the Amulet Graphic Novel series this year, although not one of our chosen authors, the children have really enjoyed this genre.
Year 6 have really embraced reading for pleasure this year, here are some of their top picks.
The 2023 St Michael's Author of the Year Winners - as chosen by our pupils who have loved reading their books.
Teachers have been busy sharing their author's books with classes, children are really excited to get their hands on the new books.
