Reading
Coming soon!
Starbooks
We hope to launch our Starbooks reading reward again in November after half term. Earn yourself a hot chocolate and extra toppings. How many will you earn? Remember, if you come to Starbooks every week, you will be able to enjoy a cake on the last week of the half term! Until we can meet at Starbooks, keep reading 3 times a week at home.
50 reads challenge
A new reading challenge is being launched soon. Each year group will have 50 recommended reads that you can select as your reading book. Your challenge is to read as many of these as you can in a year, to earn yourself rewards. Try books that you wouldn't normally read. There are lots of fantastic books for you to choose. Who's up for the challenge?
Have a look at the books that you could be reading!
Have a look at what we have been doing in school to celebrate reading
National Poetry Day
To celebrate National Poetry Day on 1st October, we held a poetry morning. Each year group explored poems written by famous poets such as Edward Lear, Kit Wright, Michael Rosen, Wilfred Owen and Allan Ahlberg. We found out about poetry techniques, including rhyme, personification and similes. To end the morning, everyone had a go at writing their own poems, inspired by a famous poets. Have a look at some of the amazing work in the pictures below.
Year 3 - The Magic Box (Kit Wright)
Year 4 - Don't (Michael Rosen)
Year 5 - The Owl and the Pussy Cat (Edward Lear)
Year 6 - Please Mrs Butler (Allan Ahlberg)
For World Book Day, pupils at Albany Junior School got dressed up as their favourite book characters. Check out our class pictures and who we came as...
Don't forget to spend your WBD voucher!
Bedtime story on WBD
Gareth Baker's Reading Competition
Thank you for all entries to this competition. We are thrilled with how many entries we received. Well done to everyone. Gareth took all entries away on Friday 9th March and announced the winner on Monday 12th MArch in assembly.
Congratulations to Yvaine Bird in Year 3 and Lewis Viner in Year 6.
Each winner received a £10 gift voucher to spend.
Competition Winners!
Well done to Lewis Viner and Yvaine Bird on winning a book voucher from Gareth Baker for creating your own front cover and blurb for an original story.
We had some great entries for the book competition. Keep your eyes peeled for these around school and on the website.
Check out our World Book Day Class Pictures...
3G
3R
4H
4O
5M
5W
6G
6T
The entries handed in for the learning log set by Gareth have been amazing. He will be picking them up very soon!
DCFC Reading Competition
Year 3 Roman Workshops with Gareth
Librarians and Gareth
Dinner with Gareth
Evidencing the Impact of our Patron of Reading
The above document details the impact of Gareth baker as Albany Junior School's Patron of Reading. We are extremely pleased with the impact that Gareth has had on our school and the impact it has had on our pupils' attitudes towards reading.
A huge thank you to all pupils for their entries to our reading competition.
An additional thank you to New Appeals Organisation, who donated £136 which paid for the pantomime tickets and other prizes given out to winners. Thank you to Joanna, who arranged for trophies to be made for the top 2 winners.
First Prize Winner - Abigail
Second Place - Euan
Third Place - Harry
Fourth Place - Cody
Our Top 4
Reading Competition Entries
Albany & Gareth Baker Book Request
Christmas Reading Competition
Gareth Baker Newsletter
Gareth Baker thank you letter
Story inspired dance
Bedtime Story with Gareth Baker 2.3.17
Wow! What an event. Thank you to all pupils, parents and staff who came along to the storytelling with Gareth. I was amazed at how many came tonight.
Thanks
Miss Richards
Check out our costumes!!!
Wow! What a great start to World Book Week at AJS. Today we have had Gareth Baker in again to announce some exciting news! Gareth Baker is now officially our Patron of Reading.
All pupils were excited about Gareth being back and are pleased that he will be continuing to work with them. Staff also enjoyed the workshops led by Gareth today.
What is a Patron of Reading?
A Patron of Reading (PoR) is a school's special, designated children's author with whom the school forms a personal attachment. The patron might be an author, a poet, storyteller or an illustrator. Tenure lasts for a minimum of a year, but the exact length is decided mutually between the school and patron. (http://www.patronofreading.co.uk/)
Find out more about Gareth on his website: http://www.gareth-baker.com/
Readathon Reading Event
Gareth has also launched our sponsored Readathon event for March 2017. Pupils have a whole month to read as much as they can. Pupils have been asked to be sponsored per book/per chapter/per page read. Money raised goes to purchasing books for children who are in hospital for long periods of time or who will never leave hospital. A small percentage of sponsor money is given to our own school to broaden the texts we have in our own school library.
All sponsor money and forms should be handed in before the last day of term.
Year 3 Writing Workshop with Gareth
More information about our Patron of Reading coming soon...
World Book Week Timetable
First Prize!
Our Top 6 winners
Top 6 Reading Entries
Top 12 Reading Competition Entries
Author Visit Assembly Gareth Baker
Book Signing with Gareth Baker
On Monday 21st November, Albany Junior School were very lucky to have a visit from local author Gareth Baker. Gareth kept our pupils on their toes and created their very own adventure story from start to finish with props in just an hour! All pupils thoroughly enjoyed it as did the staff especially Mr Tivey. We were lucky enough to hear Gareth read from two of his books. A lot of pupil purchased books from Gareth and he kindly signed these for the pupils. He even SOLD OUT of his books. He will be back in school before Christmas with some more books and to arrange future visits to classrooms.
Unusual/Creative Reading Competition
Well done to everyone who took time out of their busy day to get creative with their reading spaces. Myself and Miss Weatherall were very impressed! It was extremely hard to pick a top 12 between us. We asked Mr Tivey and Mrs Harfield to narrow it down to a top 6 then Mr Robertson and Mrs Wheeler helped to select the overall winner. Well done to…