Here at Nishkam Primary School, we pride ourselves on the fact that we love reading! We strive to inspire and foster a love of reading amongst all our pupils and do so through a variety of ways.  

Our library is the highlight and has proven very popular. We appreciate how important libraries are, and the correlation between them and reading attainment (please find more information about this here: https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/understanding-impact-and-characteristics-school-libraries-and-reading-spaces/), but to us at Nishkam, we truly value the opportunities our library creates to promote our virtues, such as awe and peacefulness.  

Our library is stocked with a wide variety of ‘Accelerated Reader’ books to make sure our children have lots of choice and that there are books to suit every child’s taste. Accelerated Reader is an interactive computer-based program. It helps our teachers to guide children to exciting books that are suited to their individual reading levels - ensuring they are both challenging and accessible. ‘Myon’ runs alongside Accelerated Reader and our library. It is a personalised, digital library that can be accessed in school and at home, meaning the choice is endless and there are always plenty of books to dive in to.  

We aim to continue to provide our children with a rich literary education so that they have an ample choice of books and opportunity to embed reading for pleasure across the curriculum and ensure the love of reading will continue to grow. 

Reading at home 

Did you know that young children who are read one book to each day will hear about 290,000 more words by the age of 5 than those who don't regularly read books with a parent or caregiver? This shows just how important you, as the caregiver, are and the impact you can have. Not only does reading support speech and vocabulary development, it also makes us better writers. Reading really is magic and we place it at the heart of our virtues-led curriculum. 

Our recent reading challenge was proved to be a huge success. We challenged our children to read as many books as they could over the course of a couple of weeks. Not only did they get the chance to get lost in the wonder of books and practise the virtue of determination, they also raised money for the school. To all the very generous family and friends who sponsored our children for their efforts, I say a huge THANK YOU!  You have helped us to raise over £5000 to spend on further books for our classroom reading corners.  

Sophie Worthington, Assistant Head Teacher for Teaching & Learning