At Homerswood Primary and Nursery School we strive to create a community where everyone is reading their way to a better life. Research shows that reading for pleasure can promote better health and wellbeing and aid in building social connections and relationships with others.

Many exciting and rewarding opportunities are arranged in school to promote the pleasure and knowledge that can be gained from books. Class libraries are well-stocked with a variety of diverse texts and children are encouraged to share their ideas and opinions about the texts they read. Yearly events to mark a love of reading are celebrated: for example ‘World Book Day’ and author visits. Every year, each class also visits our local library to encourage an engagement with reading in their wider community and librarians are in turn invited into school to engage in whole school assemblies.

Other opportunities to read for pleasure include children reading in paired classes and weekly sessions to visit the school library. We recognise the value of adults (both in school and at home) reading aloud to children and utilise the help of community volunteers which includes our much valued part-time school librarian.

The delight in sharing wonderful texts with children is not undervalued and in all year groups, teachers take time to read aloud without pausing in order for full immersion in a text.

The delight in sharing wonderful texts with children is not undervalued and in all year groups, teachers take time to read aloud without pausing in order for full immersion in a text.