'Space Chase' - Library Summer Reading Challenge

These wonderful children took part in the Summer Reading Challenge and it really was simple to do – when the summer holidays started, they made sure they were signed up at their local library.

All children received their very own Space Chase mission folder to get started.

They read six library books (or more!) over the holidays and collected special stickers to add to their folder.

On collecting all the stickers to find the aliens, they saved the missing books and completed the Challenge.

If you are interested in completing this next Summer then keep your eyes open on https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk

Well done to you all.

Y3 - Y6: Cinema Event - raising funds for our school library

Dear parents/carers of pupils in Y3 to Y6,

To help raise money for our school library - and give you some extra time in the evening to prepare for the festive season - we are holding special viewings of some fantastic children’s movies! For four nights the school will remain open until 5pm, each time showing a different movie (see to the right for titles and dates).

The cost of each viewing is £2.50 (payable via sQuid), children are welcome to come to one, two, three, or all four! All money raised will be spent on new books for our school library. There will be an interval during the film where popcorn and soft drinks will be provided.

★Wed 20 Nov - Aladdin (PG) ★Wed 27 Nov - Toy Story 4 (PG)

★Wed 4 Dec - Elf (PG) ★Wed 11 Dec - Arthur Christmas (U)

All attending children will need to be collected from the front of the school.

Please complete and return the slip attached by Monday 11th November 2019.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Ward

Bookfair

A massive congratulations and thank you to Mrs Mcfarlane and the year 5&6 spinebreakers who raised an astounding £700 at the bookfair over the past week. The children now have £350 pounds to spend on new books for the library. Thanks to you all for supporting this community event.

Get Caught Reading: Summer

#getcaughtreading

Congratulations to Summer who was caught reading while looking for clues during her birthday treasure hunt.

Click here for the map... can you find your image?

Get Caught Reading
Why have a reading competition?
We believe in developing a culture where children are intrinsically motivated to read for pleasure. We believe in encouraging them to read both inside and beyond school. We believe that the most effective way to promote reading is to work in partnership with parents and families.

How does it work?
During the holidays, parents and family look out for chances to 'catch their child reading'. This can be a book or any other reading material: timetables, recipes, instructions. The images can then be shared via our social media platforms to celebrate the reading being done and promote the competition to other families. Look out for photos from staff, who also take part in the promotion!

What is done with the images?
Our librarian adds the images to the Get Caught Reading Map. We plot the distance from where the image was taken to the school - so that we can see if it is possible to beat the previous year's reading mileage. All the images are posted on our blog and entered into the competition. At the end of the holiday, the most unique and interesting photo wins a prize!

Without a doubt the Get Caught Reading competition has been one of our most successful ways to promote a love of reading beyond the school. Each year, thousands of reading miles are accumulated. Pupils are caught reading in an amazing array of places: pools, on trampolines, in historic castles and even underground. It also sustains the link we have with parents and carers during the holidays and allows us a window into what our pupils have been doing during the break... thank you for your support and for sharing!
Malcolm Drakes - Executive Headteacher.

Super Reader - Javon

Javon has been a super reader this year. Always keen to pick up a book, he has been really enjoying the stories in the library.

Great reading Javon... keep it up!

Hannah Super Reader

Hannah read very confidently this week. Don't be fooled by Theo's sleepy eyes. If he relaxes like that it is a very good sign that your reading is going well.

Theo is our Reading Dog, who comes in three times a week to spend time with a wide range of pupils.

I loved reading to Theo. He cuddles up on me and listens so carefully. As soon as I stop, or reach the end, he raises his head. When he looks at you with those eyes, you just have to read him another book!
Hannah

Reading to Theo is one of our Experience Entitlements, and he has really boosted enthusiasm for reading for pleasure. He'll be the best read dog in East London.

Library Refurbishment

If you have been near the library recently you will notice that it has undergone a revamp. The old carpet is gone, the new 'oak effect' vinyl has been installed, there is a comfy new sofa in the corner with some gold lettered cushions (Shhhh). The desking in the area has been reduced to give pupils more space, and there is a comfy new rug, which Theo was very keen to make use of.

Olivia was one of the first pupils to make the most of the improved facilities. She looks very comfortable giving Theo a cuddle while reading her favourite book to him.

The changes aren't quite finished. There is some additional shelving to come, new LED letters on the wall and a new workstation. Once it is finished we will post some more pictures.

World Book Day

We were all disappointed that we couldn’t celebrate book day on Thursday 1st March. No need to be upset, the children will get a chance to wear those costumes. We will be rescheduling our World Book Day celebrations for this coming Friday 9th March. We look forward to seeing all of the costumes on Friday and hopefully the temperature will have risen as well.

World Book day - Thursday 1st March 2018

Thursday 1st March is world book day.

We are going to celebrate the day by asking all pupils to dress as their favourite book character for the day. The children could be Harry, Matilda or Alice and we are looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful ideas that you come up with. There will be prizes for the most imaginative character costumes from each class!

Please be mindful when choosing a costume as the children will still be going outside for play  as usual during the day. Ensure that your child wears their coat over their costume and has on sensible shoes such as their school shoes or trainers.

We have lots of activities planned including a teachers book bingo, the children will need to match the quotes from children's literature to the teacher. We will also be playing hide and seek with books! 

Looking forward to seeing all of the children dressed up as their favourite characters! 

Get Caught Reading: Sophie at the library

#getcaughtreading

Well done to Sophie. Here she is getting caught reading her book at the Harold Hill library.

Check out the latest pins on our Get Caught Reading Map: CLICK HERE

Harry Potter World: Reading Champions!

​Super Readers from Broadford & Mead Primary school were rewarded for their love of books with a tour of the Harry Potter Studios.

The 30 pupils gazed in wonder as the imposing oak doors opened to reveal the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Once inside the famous wizarding school the pupils had a lesson in creating a screenplay before handling some of the original props and costumes from the 8 different motion pictures made from the J K Rowling books.

This year the Harry Potter challenge was the most popular of all our library events. Pupils of all ages signed up to cast spells, read the stories and learn about the young wizard. This trip was a fantastical way to bring that Reading to life
Mrs Macfarlane - Broadford Librarian

In their lesson at the film studio the children learnt about some special writers secrets:

First you have to hook the reader in - it must be in the first 5 minutes of the film. A great hook makes you want to ask lots of questions and find out more
Sacha Raif - Year 4

In the first Harry Potter film you see a Cat turn into a woman, an old man turn out all the street lights, a baby being left on a doorstep and a child with a mysterious scar... who wouldn't want to read on Inspiring a life long live of reading is absolutely key to the success of our pupils and our schools. Experiences like this inspire the children to read more books and to have a go at their own writing.

Jill Horsham - Mead Librarian




100% of the pupils on the trip now want to read all of the Potter series, and 100% of those who have never read a J K Rowling book will now do so during the holiday!

In addition to this trip, pupils of The Learning Federation have experienced author visits, library workshops, trips to Harry Potter World, reading competitions and writers workshops. Without a doubt this trip has created a new legion of Harry Potter fans!

Get Caught Reading: Mr Drakes

#getcaughtreading

Mr Drakes managed to find five minutes to catch up on his reading while perched atop the climbing net at Thames Chase. 

Get Caught Reading: Zoe

#getcaughtreading
Zoe has created her own library at home, which means she will be caught reading every day! The weather hasn't been that great so far, but we love her sense of optimism with the sunglasses.

Get Caught Reading: William

#getcaughtreading
William is the first pupil out of the blocks with the Get Caught Reading campaign for 2017! Clearly there isn't much to look at when you are completing the Chelsea stadium tour. Had William been at the London Stadium exploring the rich history of West Ham United Football Club he wouldn't have had time to get out his book and start reading!

Well done for getting caught so early on William... we look forward to seeing the next photos very soon!

Check out where William was on our MyMap: click here to access the map

We're In The Paper: World Book Day

The Romford Recorder was bowled over by the quality of the Character Dress Up Competition this year. As a result we have been featured as a centre spread in this week's paper... so don't forget to pick up a copy.

We couldn't believe the quality of the costumes that were made, bought, prepared and worn for the World Book Day celebrations. I think 2017 has been the best year yet!
Miss Sparkes - Librarian

World Book Day - Staff Costumes

A huge thank you to all the staff who helped to make World Book Day 2017 so memorable. The amazing costumes showed characters from a wide range of books and lead to many interesting conversations with pupils.

We're In The Paper: Author Visit

Pupils from The Learning Federation were delighted to meet author Ian Whybrow this week. Best known for the Harry & His Bucketful of Dinosaurs series, Ian spoke to the children about his career as a writer and where he gets his ideas from.

'I thought Harry would have been his son, but Ian said he got the idea from a child he saw playing at the garden centre with a bucketful of dinosaurs. The name Harry comes from Prince Harry, who was a small boy then.'
James Olatunji - aged 6

​During the workshop, Ian read the pupils some of the stories and poems from his other books. The pupils also heard about how Ian works with the illustrators to bring the characters to life.

'Books are a great way of starting a conversation with pupils, challenging their language and opening up the chances for unexpected links. In Ian's picture books there are lots of chances to develop positional language, description and extended sentences... as well as enjoy the pictures and sense of humour.'
Miss Roseanne Sparkes - Librarian

Broadford & Mead Primary have seen a significant improvement in the quality of their writing and the level of interest in the library since the program of author visits was established. The termly sessions with writers and illustrators has seen the pupils produce their own story compilation and win national recognition in writing competitions.

Theo's New Reading Partners

Theo has been busy in the library with some new reading groups. It doesn't look as if he is working that hard, but Theo has inspired even more readers to make use of the library this year. Those pupils who read regularly, complete their reading record books and engage with the challenges set by Miss Sparkes get extra reading time with Theo.

As a consequence loans are up again by 12% and the number of pupils managing to read 4+ times a week in EYFS & KS1 is up by 17%... well done Theo!

We're In The Paper: Reading League Champs!

This week the Romford Recorder ran a story about our Reading Champions. They have all worked hard to top Miss Sparkes's league for the Autumn Term.

As a reward they earned tickets to the Revolution Cycling track event at the Olympic Velodrome.

I have read everyday with the reading competition. It has been a lot of fun!
Harley

I really enjoyed the challenges set by Miss Sparkes. It has helped me to understand more about the characters in the books.
Lillie Mersh

Design A Book Cover Winners

In the library this term, Miss Sparkes has been holding a competition to design a book cover for the latest additions of The Dork Diaries or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It has been a very popular competition, but there could only be four winners.

Congratulations to Dyia Patel, Oliwia Bartnik, Plamen Vasilev & Fayo Ayodola who had their designs chosen. Each child receives a copy of the latest book in the series to take home.