School strives to ensure every child has challenging book to read during lockdown

Courthouse Junior School has started an appeal for books to ensure that every child has a high quality book to read in lockdown.

The school has been encouraging children to read more for pleasure – but maintaining this has been more difficult while the children are remote learning.

Teachers have discovered that many children have been reading a limited variety of books, or even the same book over and over again for months.

In response it has sent out an Amazon wishlist of books for residents to get for the schoolchildren.

The school wants children to read books that support other parts of the curriculum, including PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education) subjects such as mental health.

Kelly Buxton is the reading lead at the school.

“It’s really important that children listen to an adult reading from a high quality text so they can gain meaning from it,” she said.

“When they’re in school we can expose them to different genres and a school full of enriching books. We can help when we’re in school but in lockdown we can’t provide this.”

The best books, Kelly says, are factual books written as fiction stories, slightly above their reading level, containing some words the children would not ordinarily use.

“These kinds of books teach emotional intelligence,” she said.

“It also helps their writing level – something that took the biggest hit during the first lockdown.”

Since sending out the appeal for books, Courthouse Junior has received 76 books.

“We have been overwhelmed by the generosity – everyone is on the same page that reading does really matter,” said Kelly.

“Books open up the world to them. Being an avid reader leads to the biggest academic outcomes in later life.

“Having children reading aloud to their family can bring a family together – and it helps the children with pronunciation.”

To see the list of books the school is looking for, visit tinyurl.com/y5szjkjn