Reading Champions

At Elm Academy, we want all our pupils to develop a love of reading during their time here and to become confident, proficient readers. To ensure this happens, we provide numerous opportunities to develop reading for all year groups across our broad curriculum. These include Phonics sessions, Whole Class Reading lessons, Reading Comprehension sessions, Story Time, regular 1:1 reading with a class teacher or teaching assistant, a vast selection of accurately banded books for your child to choose from to take home and much more. To support the children further, it is vital that they read at home daily, even if only for a short time. This could include reading to an adult, a sibling or independently. Every time our pupils read at home, we ask for a comment to be written in their planner so we can monitor who is reading daily.

Our reading reward scheme is called Elm Academy Reading Champions and is aimed to celebrate those pupils who are reading daily at home, this is monitored by looking at the comments in their planner. Teachers choose pupils at random each week to discuss what they have read at home and to discuss the comments in their planners with.

Those pupils that read daily each week will receive five minutes extra play on a Friday and a House Point. As well as this they will support their class to win a prize at the end of each term for the class that has read the most. Those that have not read daily that week will use the time when their peers are having their extra five minutes play to catch up on some reading.

If pupils read every day for a term, they will receive the weekly rewards, their photo will go on our whole school Reading Champions display and they will receive an Elm Academy Reading Champions book mark in Celebration Assembly.

Those pupils that read daily for two terms will receive all the termly rewards and an Elm Academy Reading Champion badge in Celebration Assembly to go on their jumpers.

Anyone that reads daily for the whole academic year will not only receive the above rewards but will also be entered into a raffle to receive a prize such as a Gift Voucher.

Daily, a member of SLT goes outside at playtime to offer pupils the opportunity to read then to contribute to their daily read total.