“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library”
Albert Einstein
Reading for Enjoyment
Story Time
In school we place a great deal of importance on story time. Every class in school has a daily dedicated story time session where we choose a variety of books designed to foster curiosity and interest. The children vote for their daily story from this special collection of books and love to see which stories are chosen!
School Library
At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary we believe that developing a love of reading is vital. We have a high quality library which is well stocked with a variety of both fiction and non-fiction texts covering all genres. Every class in school has their own opportunity weekly to access and explore the library.
Shirebrook Library
We have also developed close links with the local Shirebrook library, who have supported weekly library visits for every class to access the wide variety of books and learn about how to independently find books to borrow.
Author of the Term
Within each year group we have an ‘Author of the Term’ focus, where the children are exposed to age appropriate texts by a mixture of traditional and modern authors to help foster and develop their recognition of a wider variety of authors.
| Advent | Lent | Pentecost | |
| Nursery | Axel Scheffler | Eric Carle | David McKee |
| Reception | Oliver Jeffers | Sue Hendra | Nick Sharratt |
| Year 1 | Claire Freedman | Tony Ross | Giles Andreae |
| Janet and Allan Ahlberg | Judith Kerr | Dr Seuss | |
| Year 2 | Jill Murphy | Martin Waddell | Rachel Bright |
| Julia Donaldson | Tom Fletcher | Roald Dahl | |
| Year 3 | Alan Macdonald | Dick King-Smith | Jeremy Strong |
| Francesca Simon | Steve Cole | Holly Webb | |
| Year 4 | Chris Riddell | Michael Morpurgo | AF Harold |
| Guy Bass | Chris Mould | Pamela Butchart | |
| Year 5 | Eva Ibbotson | Philip Pullman | Robert Swindells |
| Enid Blyton | Elen Coldecott | Pete Johnson | |
| Year 6 | Cornelia Funke | Anthony Horowitz | Eoin Colfer |
| Rick Riordan | Emma Carroll | David Almond |
Reading Cafe
Friday morning’s are an exciting time at St Joseph’s Primary, as our weekly Reading Cafes take place in the school hall. These are designed to give parents the opportunity to come in to school and share in their child’s love of reading through sharing books together from our school library over a cup of tea and biscuit. The children come together at the end of the session to enjoy a shared text read aloud by the class teacher, which allows our parents to immerse themselves in the joy of listening to others read also.
World Book Day 2023
We enjoyed celebrating World Book Day 2023. Dressing up as our favourite character and sharing stories with our parents and friends. We love to read at St Joseph’s and enjoy sharing our favourite books and authors with others to inspire them to read also!
