We are excited to announce an author visit! 

We are delighted to announce that on Friday 16^th May 2025 we will be visited by Philip Kavvadias, award-winning author of MISSION MICRORAPTOR and MISSION MANTA RAY.  You can order copies of Philip’s first two books through Parent Pay. We are very fortunate to have been offered a 50% discount, which means you can buy each copy at only £4, in other words two for the price of one! Orders close at Monday 28^th April.

Many thanks for continuing to support your children’s reading.

A huge thank you to all our parents and carers for supporting this year's World Book Day. Thank you for all the book character costumes and for entering the 'Book in a Box' competition. To begin the day, we welcomed families into school for a story and a craft activity in class. Thank you to all who joined us, the children really enjoyed this special time. Following our craft the students enjoyed a fun day with many meaningful reading experiences.

Each class took a turn following a book trail in the woodland area. It was a beautiful sunny and breezy day which was perfect for our tale about the wind, The Leaf Thief. Throughout the trail the children had various challenges to complete. These included: spotting evergreen and deciduous trees, mindfulness exercises, reading poetry about the wind and creating pictures of the squirrel and bird from the story. 

Throughout the day classes and peers read together. Key Stage 2 created 'Reading Rivers' which show their favourite reading experiences throughout their lives so far. We ended the day with a whole school assembly in which each class did a parade of their costumes and the other children spotted all the book characters who had come to school that day!

The children all came home with a £1 book voucher to exchange for a free World Book Day book or to take off the price of a new book. 

This day encourages all to read which is so beneficial to the future lives of all our fabulous pupils. Pupils who read more achieve more in their education and working lives. At St George's we constantly create engaging reading activities to promote a love of books. Our next event is inviting in an author, Phillip Kavvadias, to inspire the children.

Reading for Pleasure Latest News- 

Family Story Time 

Dear parents and carers, 

Please join us in school for Family Story Time on Monday 24th March (2:45-3:15pm). We really value reading for pleasure and love to share story time with parents and carers. 

Reading for Pleasure Events

During the second half term we will be having a special World Book Day. Please read the letter attached to this page about it and we look forward to all the booky fun to come. 

During National Storytelling Week, 3rd-9th February, we encouraged the students to take charge during story time ! They picked and read stories to their peers. Thank you and well done to everyone who had a go!

Happy reading! Mrs Hall

Our School Library- The Heart of St. George's

Our library is well-stocked and well-loved. It supports our lessons and reading for pleasure throughout the whole school. 

Our aim is to have a unified approach across the school in the provision and maintenance of book collections in the main library and classroom collections. 

The purpose of the Library:

• To provide children with a stimulating and inviting, yet relaxing environment, in which they feel comfortable in selecting texts and learning materials of their choice.
• To provide a core collection of non-fiction books for teacher reference.
• To provide core collections for children to learn information skills, such as using books effectively for research.
• To provide fiction suitable for the entire age and ability range, to include series by well-known authors, joke books, books for reluctant and and advanced readers, dual language books etc.
• To provide opportunities for children to read for pleasure.
• To teach children how to use, handle and respect books, and to use with confidence he library system independently and efficiently.
• To promote libraries as places which provide enjoyable and exciting activities.
• To provide opportunities for children and their families to take part in literacy-related activities, such as book clubs.

Accommodation:

• The main library is situated at the centre of the school in an area that is situated between KS1 and KS2, and includes an outdoor courtyard reading area.
• The library is utilised on a daily basis by whole-class visits. TAs supporting groups of children, and open-library times staffed by volunteers during lunch time, and before and after school.
• The layout of the library ensures that it is accessible to all children and adults within the school, including wheelchair users.
• The library provides an authentic ‘Library Experience’ through the organisation of the fiction books in alphabetical order by author’s surname and the use of the Dewey System combined with a colour-coded system for the non-fiction books.
• There is a desk with a computer, where the Librarian, staff or children use the computer programme to check in and out books.
• In addition to the main library there will be a selection of reading material in each classroom. This will be selected from the stock in the library to reflect the current topics and interests of the class, and will be changed regularly.
• Posters give children further support in using the library independently.
• Children’s learning is also displayed in the library.

Community links:

• The staff will work together to arrange fun after school events to promote a love of reading and its importance in lifelong learning.
• Links with New Mills Library are promoted with good success, such as can be seen by the summer reading programme run by Derbyshire Libraries.
• A growing number of parents listen to our children read one-to-one to boost confidence, develop expression and diction when reading aloud.

NEW READING BOOKS!

We have boosted resources in KS1 and the Juniors have a wonderful new reading scheme! We are using Collins Big Cat readers, as we do in KS1. The books are bright and modern with plenty of variety to interest all the children. The huge variety of genres will build and develop our students' vocabularies. 

Each child will be bringing home their class reading book and a book that they have chosen from the library to read for pleasure. Please listen to them read most nights each week. Please sign and write a note about their reading in their reading diary. If you find your child is reading fluently and confidently, please develop their vocabulary skills by discussing new language in their books. 

Each class has a new reading scrapbook that will come home with children throughout the term. Please use the scrapbook to create a double page spread all about a book that your child is currently enjoying. This book could be an old favourite from home, their class reader or their library book. Get creative and present your book review however you choose! We are inspiring the children to recommend books to each other to encourage their love of reading. 

Happy reading!