Reading
Reading is at the core of our curriculum at St Anthony's. Our standards demonstrate that our reading curriculum has clear impact in all three key stages. As part of our Reading Curriculum all our children are exposed to:
- Guided reading or novel study lessons.
- English lessons with a focus on reading.
- KS1 and FS Story sessions.
- Individual reading experiences.
- Visits to our two in school libraries weekly by all classes using our electronic library systems.
- World Book Day annually with a focus on reading.
- Regular family learning with a reading based focus for parents and carers.
- Year 6 Keeping up with the kids reading parent and child sessions in the Spring term.
- Reception Language Sessions led by Mrs Capaldi in Autumn 2 onwards funded by Leeds Council.
- All classes visit our local library termly.
Please take a look over the evidence of the impact of our wonderful curriculum for reading below ...
Our Junior Reading Leaders visit Waterstones for World Book Day 2024!
Our St Anthony's Junior Reading Leaders visited Waterstones in Leeds with Mrs Gledhill for World Book Day 2024! We completed a tour of the bookshop and discovered what it would be like to be a published author in the future. We then explored recommended reads and flicked through award winning children's books. After, we completed a special World Book Day book hunt within the store, excitingly discovering so many new things! With Mrs Gledhill, we explored what each class at school is currently learning about or what they will be studying in upcoming topics. We then chose a range of books we would recommend for each class, then voted on which one we would like to buy based on its content and vocabulary choices. We presented each of these special books to each class during Good Work Assembly. Before leaving, we wrote book recommendations for others to read which are displayed proudly on the shelves of Waterstones. Thank you to Mrs Easton who also accompanied us on this special trip.
I am so proud of you all - you are super role models in spreading your love of reading to others!
- Mrs Gledhill
I am so proud of you all - you are super role models in spreading your love of reading to others!
- Mrs Gledhill
Year 1 Outdoor Literacy - The Gruffalo
We have been learning all about the story of 'The Gruffalo' in our English lessons and took part in an outdoor literacy afternoon to help us to bring this story to life. We used our knowledge of the story to join in with the text, answer questions about the characters and sequence key events. Our acting skills were fantastic as we journeyed around our school field retelling the story and meeting all the different characters. We even worked well as a team to create some Gruffalo Crumble! Have a look at our video to see all our fantastic learning. Well done Year 1!
Reception Outdoor Literacy - We're Going on a Bear Hunt
We have been exploring the story of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' during our forest school lessons. To help us to practise using describing words such as smooth, bumpy, cold and prickly, we went on a barefoot walk through the story. The language used was fantastic and the children thoroughly enjoyed becoming immersed in our story in a completely different way!
Reception - Our Story Projects
We have thoroughly enjoyed our learning project all about the story 'There is No Big Bad Wolf in this Story!' After investigating the text and exploring the traditional tales featured in the story, we all chose which of the traditional tales was our favourite. We then worked as a team to complete a story project about our favourite traditional tale. This included making a model of the story setting, making puppets, creating a story map, using our puppets to act out the story, creating hats of key characters and putting on a show to share our story with others. Have a look at some of our wonderful work!
PhotoStory- World Book Day.wmv
Little Wandle Practise Reading Sessions
Little Wandle Practise Reading Sessions are now taking place three times a week in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. The children are really enjoying the new books and are trying really hard to decode the new words, read with expression and understand what is happening in the story. We hope you enjoy the photographs - you can certainly see the concentration!!
Reception - Popcorn and Pyjama Day!
Inspired by the Popcorn poem we have been learning, we had a brilliant Popcorn and Pyjama day. We cuddled up and read lots of amazing Christmas stories, performed our Popcorn poem and thoroughly enjoyed making our own popcorn treats to celebrate our learning. What a fantastic way to celebrate our love of reading!
Reception - We're Going on a Pumpkin Hunt
We had a fantastic time exploring the story 'We're Going on a Pumpkin Hunt'. One of our highlights has to be our outdoor story trail. We had so much fun acting out the story and joining in with the repeating refrains. Alongside this we have also been doing lots of other activities surrounding our interest in pumpkins and Halloween. Have a look at this video to see what we have been up to.
Reception - The Smartest Giant in Town
We had a very special visitor this week who helped us to launch our learning about 'The Smartest Giant in Town' by Julia Donaldson. All of the children were so sensible, following our listening rules and taking on the roles of different characters. They were super actors and actresses! Have a look at some of the exciting learning we did around this story.
Reception - The Bog Baby
We spent a fantastic afternoon outdoors exploring the story of 'The Bog Baby' by Jeanne Willis and Gwen Millward. After listening to the story, we explored the character of the Bog Baby and discovered some little Bog Babies of our own. We thought about how we could look after them and decided to build them some homes and prepare them some food. Our team-work skills were fantastic as we worked collaboratively to make sure our Bog Baby was well looked after. We also thought about how the Bog Baby might be feeling at different points of the story and made Bog Baby faces using clay and natural materials. Look at our amazing creations!
Reception - Phonics Olympics
We had a fantastic time at our phonics olympics! We played honeypot relay, parachute pop and even went on a treasure hunt to practise reading the phonics sounds we have learnt this term. The children did a fantastic job of spotting different digraphs and trigraphs.
Reception - Sensational Stories Session for Parents
Reception - Phonics Family Learning Session
Reception - Book Week
Year 1- Fairytales and Dragons workshop
During reading week Year 1 were lucky enough to take part in a Fairytales and Dragon workshop in order to support their story writing in Literacy. The children watched an incredible performance of The Princess and the Dragon, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The children then had to create their own fairytale land and characters using recycled materials. The workshop sparked the children's imaginations and they came up with some fantastic ideas!
Well done Year 1
Well done Year 1
Year 1- World Book Day
What an eventful World Book Day! We all dressed up as our favourite book characters and took part in many activities that inspired our love of reading. Year 1 made Gruffalo crumble after reading the story, it was delicious. They were also very lucky to have the Year 6 children read their favourite books to them in the playground. They listened so well and loved every minute of it.
Year 2 World Book Day - 2022
Reading in Year 2 - 2022
Year 2 Reading Week
Year 2 love to read and be inspired by books! Come and look at some of our photos from the 2020 Reading Week including World Book Day!
Year 3 'Smartest Giant in Town' workshop
For book week Year 3 were involved in a drama workshop based on the Julia Donaldson book 'The Smartest Giant in Town'. The children had a fantastic time taking on roles of giants, humans and animals! They had the opportunity to design the lay out of their own town and play characters from this in various situations.
Year 3 World Book Day
Year 4 World Book Day 2022
Year 4 Reading Week
We had a fabulous time during our book week. We explored opposing points of view during our drama workshop which was inspired by Julia Donaldson's book, 'The Smartest Giant in Town'. We loved writing book reviews and enjoyed the 'Dictionary Detective Challenge'. As 'Perfect Performers' we shared extracts from our favourite books, making excellent use of intonation and expression in our voices.
World Book Day 2022 in Year 5
On Friday 4th March, we celebrated our love of reading and books with World Book Day! Year 5 used this day to launch our new class novel, The Jamie Drake Equation by Christopher Edge, and as you can see, we followed a space theme! From aliens to astronauts, Year 5 was a sea of colour! To help launch our novel and space topic, Year 5 were lucky to take part in a Virtual Reality Space Workshop where every child in the classroom became an astronaut! The whole class simultaneously blasted off into space, piloting their research vessels around planets and moons, learning about the solar system. Who knows... perhaps we inspired the next generation of scientists and astronauts who may one day blast off into space for real!
Virtual Author Workshop: Georgina Stevens
Year 5 were very lucky to take part in a live author workshop with Georgina Stevens. Georgina Stevens is an environmental campaigner and the author of Climate Action. She has 20 years’ experience of working in sustainability and is passionate about sharing her knowledge about climate change and environmental issues with young people. The workshop included an introduction to her work, her writing and her book with an opportunity for questions at the end.
Year 5's Creative Writing Workshop with James Nicol
To celebrate World Book Day, Year 5 joined the bestselling children’s author, James Nicol, for a creative writing workshop at Leeds Central Library. We had a fantastic afternoon and are filled with many story ideas! At the end of the workshop, we had a question and answer session all about life as an author. James gave us lots of top tips for writing and we can’t wait to try them out in the classroom!
Year 5 Beowulf and Warriors Workshop
As part of St Anthony's Book Week, Year 5 had a special workshop celebrating Beowulf. Using narration and working in role, we experienced the story from the point of view of warriors who follow Beowulf on a journey across the Baltic sea to avenge his father’s allies of a monstrous human called Grendel.
World Book Day in Year 5
What a fantastic day we had celebrating a love of books and reading!
Year 6 - Macbeth 'A Play in a Day'
On Wednesday 16th March, Year 6 participated in ‘Macbeth – A Play in a Day’ which was led by Leigh, from Splats Entertainment. What a day we all had! The children we split into four different groups and all led a different act from Macbeth with the help from another group too. The children enhanced their teamwork, co-operation, listening, communication and acting skills and were simply superb throughout the day. The day ended by all Year 6 performing the tragedy of Macbeth to Year 5 – what an achievement in one day!
Year 6 - World Book Day 2022
On Friday 4th March, Year 6 celebrated World Book Day. We all came dressed up to school with a range from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (based on our class text) to Lord of the Rings and Percy Jackson characters. We had a wonderful day selecting our own book from the Little Book Hut, solving a mystery using statistics in maths and creating freeze frames from the scene in Macbeth where King Duncan is murdered. Take a look at the videos above and below to see it all....
Year 6 - Macbeth Freeze Frames
Year 6 - Macbeth Day
On Monday 9th March, Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their visit from SPLATS Entertainment! The class were split into four groups and each group rehearsed an act from the play written by William Shakespeare. To end the day, the children performed Macbeth to Year 4, Year 5 and some of their parents. It was a wonderful experience and is really going to help inspire their diary writing from Macbeth's perspective.
Year 6 - Beowulf and the Warriors
On Wednesday 4th March, Year 6 participated in a 'Beowulf and the Warriors' workshop - it was a wonderful afternoon! We learnt that Beowulf is the oldest story in written form from England and dates back between the 8th and 10th Century. We completed several activities throughout the afternoon:
1. Created our own imaginery swords and used superb vocabulary to describe them as well as create a backstory as to how we acquired the sword.
2. Became warriors within a mead hall and shared tales of our recent battles - there was a little exaggeration at this point!
3. Used freeze frames to show our warrior qualities in the hope that Beowulf would choose us to join his army.
1. Created our own imaginery swords and used superb vocabulary to describe them as well as create a backstory as to how we acquired the sword.
2. Became warriors within a mead hall and shared tales of our recent battles - there was a little exaggeration at this point!
3. Used freeze frames to show our warrior qualities in the hope that Beowulf would choose us to join his army.
Year 6 sharing stories with Year 1
World Book Day in Year 6
What an action-packed World Book Day Year 6 had! Firstly, we all came dressed as a book character – our costumes were fantastic! In Guided Reading, Miss Taylor shared her favourite childhood picture books and let us read them too. In maths, we used a book called’365 Penguins’ to learn more about days, weeks, months and years. In English, we designed and described Macbeth’s sword. To end the morning, in pairs, we made a book character using a potato and art materials – it was so much fun and Miss Leonard came to vote for the winning potato character! Finally, in the afternoon, some of Year 6 participated in a Family Learning Reading session whilst the rest of the class shared picture books with our Year 1 class. What a wonderful day!
Year 6 - Family Learning
During our World Book Day celebrations, Year 6 completed their final Family Learning session, with a focus on reading. Firstly, our adults shared their favourite childhood story and then we discussed the books we remember our families reading to us when we were younger. It was lovely to see familiar authors being mentioned by all, for example: Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Julia Donaldson and Michael Rosen. We all agreed that reading can be enjoyed by all from such an early age!
Afterwards, we completed a word study about the word: superiority. We investigated: how many syllables it has, how to spell it, the different meanings it can have as well as its synonyms too. Remember you can complete a word study about any word at all – pick one out in your reading book tonight!
Finally, we read an extract aloud with our adults from H. G. Well’s ‘The Time Machine.’ We then completed some questions which required us to create our own point and then justify it using evidence from the text. A tricky concept but we are all getting much better at it!
Afterwards, we completed a word study about the word: superiority. We investigated: how many syllables it has, how to spell it, the different meanings it can have as well as its synonyms too. Remember you can complete a word study about any word at all – pick one out in your reading book tonight!
Finally, we read an extract aloud with our adults from H. G. Well’s ‘The Time Machine.’ We then completed some questions which required us to create our own point and then justify it using evidence from the text. A tricky concept but we are all getting much better at it!
World Book Day 2019
During 2019 we celebrated World Book Day around the theme - 'Curl up with a book' - to promote and encourage bed time reading. To make this day special all the children (and adults) came to school in their pyjamas. The day started with an extra special breakfast club and then we welcomed Harry Heape the author of Shiny Pippin and the Broken Forest. We hope you enjoy our Photostory!
Reading Day takes place annually as reading is high status in our school
Reading together at St.Anthony's!
