Reading for Pleasure at St. Gilbert's
We are a Lincolnshire Silver Pledge Reading School.
We love reading here at St. Gilbert’s C of E Primary School.
To continue to grow our love of reading and to show our commitment to further develop our reading provision, we have signed up to the Lincolnshire Reading Pledge. The ultimate aim of the Lincolnshire Reading pledge is to ensure that every child, regardless of their background, needs or abilities, becomes a confident, fluent and enthusiastic reader.
Last year, we worked hard to achieve the Bronze award and this year, we are delighted to have been awarded the 'Silver Pledge Award'.
We look forward to continuing our development of reading throughout school.
Please keep an eye out on this page to see all the wonderful work we are doing to encourage a life long love of reading.
Meet our wonderful new Reading Ambassadors.
They are full of enthusiasm, and can't wait to help drive our vision for Reading.
Virtual Author Visit - Micheal O'Connor
The children thoroughly enjoyed attending a virtual author visit with a local author Michael O'Connor.
The Reading Ambassadors Deliver Presents
Our wonderful Reading Ambassadors helped to select brand new reading or pleasure books for our school. The books chosen have either won a recent book award or have been highly recommended. The Ambassadors spent time exploring the books and matched them to each of the Key Stage 2 classes. They wrapped them up in parcel paper and wrote a personalised tag for each. Excitement around receiving a present was built-up during whole school worship time. The Reading Ambassadors then hand-delivered the books to each class. We can't wait to hear how much you're enjoying the books!
Next term, we will be choosing books for EYFS and KS1 - watch this space!
Meeting David Walliams
Many of our children were excited to meet the famous David Walliams, when he visited the Corn Exchange in town.
A huge thank you to one of our school families, who have kindly given us a signed copy of his new book, 'Astro Chimp'. We can't wait to get reading it!
Mark Grist - visiting poet
The children in Y3 /4 enjoyed a morning of fun when Mark Grist came to visit.
Book Voting
The buzz around book voting is incredible! It's been wonderful to hear the children talking about their choices and encouraging each other to vote for a specific book, based on peer recommendations. Below is the most recent result of a book vote in Donaldson Class.
Book Awards
Around school we now have book award stations. The displays detail which books have won awards, and copies of those books are displayed below. Speak to your class teacher about borrowing the books.
New Books!
We are always excited to receive new books in school.
These books have been chosen by our Reading Ambassadors, who spotted some gaps in our current library provision. I wonder which you'll choose to read first?
Lending Library
Mrs Muller has set up a beautiful basket, full of books, chosen to help us understand those big feelings we experience. There are also a few reading buddies in there, who are always ready to listen to our worries. They're also great for cuddling!
Teachers Recommend
If you're stuck for your next book choice or need some inspiration for a new class reader, your teachers have it covered!
Check out our most recent book recommendations below.
Celebrating World Book Day 2024
Dressing up, exploring different books, reading activities and a virtual author event, are just some of the wonderful activities the children took part in to celebrate World Book Day 2024.
We also invited our school families in for the afternoon, where they enjoyed taking part in various reading for pleasure workshops with the children.
World Spud Day Winners!
2024
As part of our Reading Week celebrations, we used our creative skills by transforming a potato into something incredible. The children were invited to turn their potato into a book character, an author or an illustrator. I'm sure you'll agree, the standard was high and our Reading Ambassadors found it very difficult to choose the winners.
All winners received a certificate and a £10 book token, curtsy of our wonderful PTA.
Reading Breakfast 2024
A huge thank you to all our families who joined us for brekki with a book. Our school hall was jam-packed (no pun intended) with children enjoying a pastry and a book with their families. Thank you also to our wonderful PTA who provided, and served all the refreshments.
Your Teachers are Readers too.
Did you know that your teachers also enjoy to read? We have our own St. Gilbert's book club called 'Chapters and Chats', and we have a book swap basket in our staff room.
Blue Peter Book Badges
We are so proud of all the children who have earned their Blue Peter Book Badges. It's great to see them wearing with pride and inspiring others to take up the challenge.
Virtual Author Event - An afternoon with Ian Eagleton
We were delighted to join Ian Eagleton's virtual author event. It was amazing to hear him read his book 'Nen and the lonely fisherman'. The children were in awe to hear about his inspiration for the story and of his love for mermaids and merman. We were also delighted when Donaldson Class were given a special mention for sitting so beautifully. Ian also shared a little sneaky peek of his new book coming out later this year. We can't wait to get a copy for our bookshelves!
Reading for Pleasure areas around school.
To encourage our children to read for pleasure, we have many areas across school that have exciting books, cosy places to read and book recommendations from our pupils.
Reading for Pleasure during our lunchtime Library Club.
Our KS1 children have been enjoying the new books during our lunchtime library club.
The Reading Ambassadors have been leading the club and doing a wonderful job of helping our younger children to read. It was great to see them recommending books and encouraging each other to try something new.
Mark Fraser Storyteller
The children in Key Stage One thoroughly enjoyed a visit by Mark today, kindly paid for by our wonderful PTA. They listened in awe as he told his own stories and retold some familiar traditional tales. The children loved joining in with the known parts such as pulling the turnip out of the ground during the Gigantic Turnip story.
Wonderful news!
St. Gilbert's is awarded the Lincolnshire Reading Pledge Bronze Award.
Our wonderful Reading Ambassadors stand proudly with our Reading Pledge Bronze Award.
We are delighted and proud to announce we have been awarded the Lincolnshire Reading Pledge Bronze award.
To achieve the award staff and pupils, here at St. Gilbert's, have worked towards meeting a range of criteria throughout this academic year. Jody, our assessor, was so impressed with our progress, that she has invited us to audit ourselves against the silver award, as she is confident, we are already meeting many of those standards as well.
What a fantastic achievement!
Meet our Reading Ambassadors
Our Reading Ambassadors are chosen for their love of reading, their willingness to share this passion with others and enthusiasm to promote reading throughout the school.
"Our first whole school event was to run a competition during our annual Reading Week celebrations."
The Ambassadors launched, promoted and judged their own 'World Spud Day' competition.
Everyone, all staff included, were invited to decorate a spud in the style of their favourite book character or author.
Prizes were a selection of books, kindly donated by The little Book Snug, and book tokens, kindly donated by our wonderful PTA.
We hope you enjoy looking through the winners below.
World Book Day 2023
Reading Breakfast
We were so pleased to welcome families back into school for our 'Reading Breakfast.' We've certainly missed this event during COVID times.
As usual, it was very well attended, with two sittings to cater for our whole school community.
A huge thank you to our PTA who kindly provided pastries and refreshments.
Reading Afternoon
On 6th March 2023, we invited our school families to join us for an afternoon of reading activities.
The children loved sharing their reading games, story telling skills and exciting book corners.
Usborne Books - Community Reading Pledge.
A huge thank you to Mrs Freeman, from 'The Little Book Snug' who supported the school by running the community book pledge.
We raised over £2000, which will buy new books to supplement our reading for pleasure books.
Thank you to the members of our local community who supported us.
Allison Homes
A representative from Allison Homes came to see all the wonderful books our community book pledge has bought.
Author Visits
We always have great pleasure in welcoming authors and illustrators into our school.
Penguin Books
Mrs Smith, from Penguin books, joined our EYFS children. They loved listening to the stories.
Jack's Grandad
Jack enjoyed sharing his Grandad's new book with the children in Y5/6. We were kindly gifted three copies to keep in school.
Thank you Jack.
Stamford Library
Our EYFS children enjoyed a visit to our local library. They loved looking at all the books and learning about how a library works.
Reading For Pleasure
With all our new and wonderful books in school, we are now sending a 'Reading for Pleasure' book home with your child each week.
This book may perhaps be beyond their reading ability as it has been chosen out of interest.
We hope you enjoying sharing the books together.
World Spud Day
A competition led by our Reading Ambassadors.
We are very proud of everyone who entered.
Reading Breakfast Fun!
Sharing a book over breakfast is a great way to start the day.
Reading Afternoon Activities
It was great to see so many parents dressed up too!
Community Book Pledge
Look at all these wonderful new books for our children to enjoy.
The children, who are part of our weekly book club, had the pleasure of unboxing and stamping the new books.
Beach Evans
Beach, who is both an author and an illustrator, came to join our KS1 children. They had a great time learning all about the writing process, from those initial first notes, all the way to a finished book. Beach shared his books with the group and then led the children through an exciting drawing workshop, where they created their own knight character.
Daniel Williamson
The children in KS1 enjoyed a lively visit from Daniel. He sang songs and shared many stories with the children.
Stamford Library
We were delighted to welcome Lea, from our town library, to spend an time with our KS1 and Y3/4 children. Lea explained all the wonderful services and clubs our library offers and even gave us a little peek at what the Summer Reading Challenge (always a favourite for us) will involve this year.
