Reading for Pleasure

Throughout the school, St Oswald's aims to promote a love of reading at every age and at various points throughout the day, from Breakfast Club, during lessons, passing the time at lunch to enjoying quiet reading time in our school library. We know that many of our children take their love of reading home; it's always great to hear how our families have enjoyed books together.

A love of reading is promoted in many ways: from assemblies and visitors, book swaps and reading events throughout the year. Each class has their very own pupil elected 'Reading Experts' who aim to promote reading for pleasure in each class as well as introducing children to new books. Reading experts encourage book talk within their classes and are responsible for ensuring that books which the pupils want are purchased for the school library. Our reading experts have worked hard to ensure children have access to a larger range of books, working with subject leaders across the curriculum to promote reading in all subjects. They are always on the look out for new ways to engage readers.

Class Novels

Class novels are a great way to expose children to different genres of texts with different levels of complexity and of course new authors. Reading time at St Oswald's is precious and we value the opportunity to share books with our children.

St Oswald's Celebrates World Book Day 2025

What a fun-filled and action-packed day we had celebrating world book day this year! There were bedtime story sessions with hot chocolate and biscuits in our specially created 'bedroom'; book delivers from authors (some classes were even lucky enough to receive signed copies); orienteering book hunts; lots of exciting art projects; author and illustrator workshops; and of course many stories were shared and enjoyed!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate here in school and to Monica at Heath Books whose kindness made sure that each and every child took a book of their very own home on the day!

Martin Luther King Day!

What better way to celebrate Martin Luther King Jnr Day than with a poetry workshop!

Class 6 and 7 enjoyed a fabulous session with poet Ian Bland and Show Racism the Red Card. They found out lots of interesting and inspiring facts about Martin himself as well two individuals here in Britain who too work to speak out against racism.

Inspired by the actions of others the children then wrote and performed their own poems to show that here at St Oswald's we always show racism the red card!

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World Nursery Rhyme Week

We love nursery rhymes here at St. Oswald's and celebrating world nursery rhyme week shows just how important rhymes are in early childhood development.

Did you know that nursery rhymes can help to develop language and literacy, numeracy, emotional, physical and social skills?

Our EYFS and Key Stage One classes received some very exciting post at the start of the week from Incy Wincy spider who set the children the 'Rhyme a Day Challenge'. We loved learning Twinkle, Twinkle, Old Macdonald, The Big Ship Sails, Incy Winy Spider and 5 Currant Buns. Incy himself even made an appearance in classes to check how the children were getting on.

Incy asked us to vote and share our favourite nursery rhymes.

• Nursery Class One chose The Big Ship Sails
• Nursery Class Two chose Incy Wincy Spider
• Class Three choose The Big Ship Sails
• Class Four chose The Big Ship Sails

Be sure to ask the children to perform them for you at home.

You could even explore the World Nursery Rhyme Week website to find out how you can get involved at home: https://www.worldnurseryrhymeweek.com/

"If children know 8 nursery rhymes off by heart by the time they are 4 years old, they are usually among the best readers and spellers in their class by the time they are 8."

Megan Fox - Reading Magic

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National Non Fiction November

Key Stage two classes explored some super new and exciting fact filled titles during the month of November to celebrate our love of non fiction.

Each class were set the challenge of finding the most fascinating facts before voting for a class champion. Take a look at the pictures below to find out what the winners were.

Don't forget to take a look at the fantastic range of non fiction books in our school and class libraries.

National Poetry Day 2024

What a fantastic day celebrating all things poem and rhyme. There was reading and sharing, writing and performing and a celebration of all things poetry! We were even lucky enough to join poet Ian Bland for a special National Poetry Day workshop!

Some children were inspired to do some research at home and even write their own poems.

Do you have a favourite poem? How many different poets can you name?

St Oswald's celebrates reading aloud!

We started our new school year with celebrating all things reading aloud. Parents and members of our school community joined us to learn about the importance of reading aloud, to share stories, experience how book talk walks in each of our classrooms and to enjoys all kind of reading performances.

Thank you to all those who joined us on such a wonderful afternoon.

We had a blast on World Book Day as we celebrated our love of reading and all things books. There was all sorts of fun across the school including orienteering book hunts in search of some new and exciting titles; creating our very own book characters, coins and bookmarks based on our favourite books; virtual author visits for each class where we met some amazing authors and illustrators( Axel Scheffler, Raahat, Kaduji, Emily Jane Clark, Liz Pinchon and Helen Rutter); and bedtime story sessions in our cosy classroom with hot chocolates and pyjamas.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all our family members that joined us to celebrate as well as to Scholastic for providing the fantastic virtual author visits for our classes.

After exploring this year's fabulous selection of World Book Day titles, each child went home with their very own book alongside their book token. We can't wait to hear what everyone spends them on. A huge thank you goes to Heath Books for providing the books for our children.

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In February, Classes 6 and 7 met author and comedian David Baddiel to find out about more about his books. They learnt about he gathers ideas for books and enjoyed listening to an extract from The Parent Agency. David's virtual visit got them thinking who they would select if they could choose their own celebrity or famous parents and there were some great ideas from Ronaldo and Zendaya to Malorie Blackman and SF Said and the genius Beyonce and Mr Bean! Who would you choose?

NATIONAL STORY TELLING WEEK

CLASS SEVEN RECEIVE A SPECIAL DELIVERY!

After joining author S F Said for a virtual author visit all about his new book Tyger, Class Seven couldn't believe their eyes when two huge parcels arrived for their class. They were delighted to find 25 copies of the book Tyger. Of course, they dived in straight away and now each have their very own copy when it's time to share the class novel.

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CHRISTMAS POETRY WITH CLASSES 5 AND 6

Classes five and six joined poet Ian Bland and schools from all over the world for a rather festive virtual poet visit. There were poetry readings, performances and some excellent poems created title 'Santa! Where are you?' Can you use our poetry prompt to write your own?​​

NON- FICTION NOVEMBER

Non-fiction November gave us the perfect opportunity to celebrate the fantastic non-fiction books we have in our school library and to explore the new ones out there that we haven't yet read.

Our reading experts created a fantastic book display, selecting their favourite titles from the library and sent recommendations to each of our classes.

We found out so many interesting facts that we have created our very own Non-Fiction fact wall.

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National Poetry Day

St Oswald's celebrated their love of poems on National Poetry Day. There were poetry performances, poet led workshops with Paul Cookson, poetry writing and even a poetry world cup. A fantastic day was had by all and a huge thank you goes to our reading experts who have created the perfect poetry book display showcasing the many books we can choose from in school.

CLASS SIX AND SEVEN JOIN HANNAH GOLD

Our aim is to introduce children to a range of authors and what better way to do this than to meet the author themselves.

Class 6 and 7 joined Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear, for a virtual visit to find out about her exciting new book: Finding Bear.

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St Oswald's was lucky to have a visit from award winning poet Matt Goodfellow and what a fantastic day it was. Matt filled the school with his amazing poems including Caterpillar Cake, Playing Hide and Seek, I'm a Special Kind of Badger and Ways to Raise Money for Charity (or at least attempt to). There were poetry performances and writing workshops in each of the classes reminding each of us that we can be poets too. Before Matt left, our reading experts convinced him to sign copies of his poetry books for our class libraries. We can't wait to see Matt again soon.

World Book Day 2023

It was all about the books on World Book Day as children arrived as their favourite book characters and the school was filled with 101 dalmatians and a rather angry looking Cruella De Ville (aka Mrs Kippax!). Some very exciting post and Tweets arrived from various authors and children were treated to hot chocolate as they shared their favourite books and discussed how they would be spending their World Book Day tokens. A huge thank you goes to Heath Books who ensured each of our children were able to take home a World Book Day book of their choices as well as their voucher. How did you spend yours?

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