Reading is one of our main priorities at James Oglethorpe Primary School so we decided to recruit Reading Ambassadors to further promote our love of reading at school. Our Reading Ambassadors will provide children’s voice in how we promote reading throughout the school. Reading Ambassadors were chosen for their love of reading, their willingness to share this passion with others and enthusiasm to promote reading throughout the school.
Our current reading ambassadors are:
3C: Eva 3M: Jack 4B: William 4S: Aman 5H: Daisy 5G: Connall 6M: Rebecca 6N: Maya
Reading Ambassador Roles and Responsibilities:
- Promote a love of reading across the school
- Recommend books to others and talk about their favourite authors
- Demonstrate exemplary reading behaviors and be an excellent role model for others
- Support pupils with reading in the library at lunchtimes
- Monitor engagement with the reading challenge
- Complete library audits to find out what books, genres, dictionaries and thesauruses are needed to support reading
- Help senior leaders in school with reading events across the school
- Help to create displays to promote reading within school
- Meet with the reading lead regularly to plan ways to maintain and promote a love of reading across school
Our achievements so far…
Library
We decided to reorganise the books in the library to make it easier for children to find books they enjoy, especially when choosing their ‘Reading for Pleasure’ book. Instead of organising the books in alphabetical order, we decided to organise them by genre, e.g. comedy, thriller, fantasy etc as well as having an Awesome Authors section. We also sorted the book band books and made the layout and organisation easier for children to use independently.
World Book Day
World Book Day was a huge success at JOPS this year, lasting over the course of a week to become World Book Week! It was fantastic to offer our children the opportunity to read for pleasure and to celebrate their love of reading throughout the whole week. We opted for a whole school approach and all studied the same book, ‘Mother Earth is Weeping’ which is a picture book, with rich meaning text. Each class immersed themselves into this story whilst developing the VIPERS reading skills and writing skills. By the end of the week, each class produced an excellent piece of work including poetry, their own picture book and persuasive posters that we will display in the library for all to enjoy.
On the day itself, we all dressed up as our favourite characters from a story and had a very lively assembly, which ended with an enjoyable costume parade. Throughout the day we had teacher swaps, D.E.A.R sessions, opportunities to share their ‘Book in a Box’ projects and favourite books, as well as participating in ‘The Masked Reader.’ There was a clear focus on reading for pleasure this year, which created a positive buzz and enthusiasm around the school – it was a day enjoyed by all.
Topic Books
To support children in their learning, we decided to source information books that relate to topics studied in History, Geography, Science, Art and RE, each half term. We thin that having books displayed will promote curiosity, creativity and independence. It also helps to develop critical thinking and information-gathering skills, builds vocabulary and language skills and helps children to make real-world connections.
Reading Wheel
During an ambassadors’ meeting, we decided that we need to promote and add new incentives for the persistent pupils gaining a place on the weekly reading wheel, who may not yet have been selected in the draw. To ensure that all children who read 5 times a week are recognised and rewarded, we decided to put Bronze, Silver and Gold awards in place for this year. At the end of each half term, we will track all the dedicated and enthusiastic readers and give them a reward.
