World Book Day 2023
Look at all of the amazing costumes!
Accelerated Reader
Attached is some information about Accelerated Reader. This is a great tool that we use in school to support your child’s development of reading. They choose books that are appropriate to their reading age and then complete quizzes once they are finished to check their understanding of the book.
Most children from Year 2 to Year 6 use Accelerated Reader and REALLY enjoy it.
Each week, we update our Accelerated display, where there is a reader of the week, a group of the week, our total book count, and our total word count! Check the main school website page for more updates.
Please do not hesitate to ask any questions about it,
Miss Hetherington
World Book Day 2022
Once again, we had a fantastic World Book Day. It was such an exciting day for everyone – staff members included. Children (and staff) dressed up, talked about books, read books and so much more.
New to the proceedings this year was a brand new READING FESTIVAL, which included lots of ‘booked themed’ stalls, where each year group came to visit, had the chance to buy a book and even take part in a fashion show. It was a really fun day – we even had a ‘Chill Out Zone’, where children could go and read their books in a tent! WOW!
I want to send a HUGE congratulations to our Reading Buddies as they ALL did a wonderful job and, once again, created a ‘Reading Buzz’ around school. On top of all of that, we raised nearly £250 to help us buy even more books for our wonderful school!
Look out for our next event, which will be ‘Shakespeare Week’ after the May half term.
Miss Hetherington 🙂
Writing in Southwick
Our children have ALL been working very hard on improving their writing skills recently and we just had to show some of it off. Take a look at the pictures below to see if you can spot anyone. 🙂
National Storytelling Week in UKS2
Like everyone else in school UKS2 had a great week for National Storytelling Week. We cooked, we baked, we laughed…we read!
National Storytelling Week in LKS2
The children in Year 3 and Year 4 have been working very hard during National Storytelling Week. They have been sharing stories, making stories, writing stories, acting stories out, making puppets for stories and much, much more…
National Storytelling Week in Early Years
National Storytelling Week was a real success at Southwick Primary School. Everyone in school had the opportunity to read stories, write stories and, most importantly, share stories.
Over the last few weeks in Reception we have been learning all about traditional tales, looking at some classic stories such as The Magic Porridge Pot and The Snow Queen. This week for national story telling week it was also the Luna New Year, therefore we have been learning about the traditional tale of the Chinese New Year. We have looked at the different animals from the Chinese zodiac making puppets to represent the animals. We have also made a dragon and enjoyed parading down the school for a traditional dragon dance. We have loved retelling these stories and learning about the different customs.
We also loved having year 6 in Reception and listening to the stories they read to us we can’t wait for this to happen again!
Reading Ambassadors 2022
Last week the Reading Ambassadors had their meeting in the staff room and they loved it. They talked about upcoming events in school and how they could make reading more accessible to EVERYONE. They came up with some great ideas and they can’t wait to share them with everyone – keep an eye out for future events and activities!
They also talk about National Storytelling Week, which is coming up very soon and how, now, they can’t wait to be able to mix properly with other year groups so they can read and share stories all over school.
They also planned ‘World Book Day’, which will be in March, and they decided on doing a ‘World Book Day Fayre’ for all the children in school. The Fayre will have lots of book based stalls, activities and competitions.
Please keep an eye out for all Reading related events and don’t forget to read with your child every night as this is so important…reading can take you anywhere!
Dramatic diaries…
Mrs Mahone’s literacy group have blown her away this week with their fantastic diary entries. Take a look at some of the fabulous finished pieces…
Acting class for year 6? Yes please!
Ross Wylie, an actor from The Northern Stage in Newcastle, joined us for an acting class. We played lots of warm up games, we looked at different characters and even had a chance to act in front of the camera. We were naturals and had so much fun!
Reading Rewards…
We know how important reading is here at Southwick, so as an incentive, when you read 10 books you get a prize-here are some of today’s winners with their choice of reward-well done everyone!
Our Reading Ambassadors had their first meeting today…
And what fun we had! We talked about our favourite books, authors and what we want reading to look like in our school in the future. We then all got our reading parts for the upcoming Harvest Festival-we cannot wait to show off our expression, volume and intonation! The best bit of the meeting is when we received our Reading Ambassador badges-they are pink and shiny and when you see them, be sure to ask us about reading because WE LOVE IT! In the future, we will be looking at improving the library, organising events around school and making reading even more amazing at Southwick!
Enjoying our class read at the end of the day…
Every day at 3pm, we get the chance to hear our a story read by an adult. We vote for the book we would like to share and await 3pm with eagerness so we can relax, listen and enjoy…
Summer Reading and Writing Competitions for EVERYONE…
We love reading and writing at Southwick School and we don’t think it should stop just because it is the Summer Holidays.
There are two documents attached that explain all about the Reading Challenge and the Writing Challenge. Prizes will be handed out in September for those chidlren who take part.
I can’t wait to see all of your hard work.
Good luck and above all HAVE FUN! Reading and writing can take you to some very magical places…
‘The Week’ subscription…
Mr Robson signed up to ‘The Week’ nearly 3 years ago and the children at Southwick Primary absolutely love it. Each week it is personally delivered (by Mr Robson) to the Year 6 classroom and the children rush to be the first to read it.
‘The Week’ has so many non-fiction based articles in, it has word searches and the Year 6 children’s personal favourite amazing pictures. The children love reading the stories out loud, they love talking about the pictures with their friends and they love having class discussions.
This week Aaron Williams (Year 6) has completed almost every word search and Conrad Clark told me all about a breakfast-inspired skate park. And we also found out that Joe Biden has removed the diet coke button from the presidential car. If you were president, what drink would you have on tap?
‘The Week’ helps the children read a variety of texts and helps them understand what is going on in the world. We would love more magazine subscriptions, do you have any ideas? If you do please email them to: english@southwickprimary.co.uk
Any questions about ‘The Week’ just let me know,
Miss Hetherington 🙂
Share a Story Day
Last Friday we celebrated ‘Share a Story’ day throughout school. This was a chance for everyone to talk about their favourite book, a book they wish they could read in the future and even their favourite characters from a story.
Lots of children even got the chance to read a story out to the rest of the class. Every day, each class gets the opportunity to read a ‘class book’ with their teacher so this was a great opportunity for the children to take control.
Some of our Year 1 children told me:
Mia Pearson (about ‘Tyrannosaurus Drip’) -‘I want to share this story because my teacher reads it and it has a huge dinosaur with funny eyebrows.’
Aleksy Staniszewski (about ‘Explore Crabs’) – ‘I like to share facts about crabs.’
Our children really do love and care about reading, keep your eyes peeled for ‘What’s next with reading at Southwick Community Primary School.’
As always, if you have any pictures that you would like to share of you and your child reading, please send it to: english@southwickprimary.co.uk
Miss Hetherington 🙂
Latest Writing Competition
At Southwick Primary School we have a whole school Writing Competition at least four times a year. The competition can be completed at home or at school. There is a deadline for all entries to be handed in by, they get read by a select group of children and then the winners are decided.
Have a look below at the latest writing competition, if you and your child want to take part, send your entries to: english@southwickprimary.co.uk 🙂
Good luck 🙂
Sharing Our work
We all love to share our work at Southwick Primary School and we all feel so proud when we do. Every half term our ‘Star Writer’ display gets updated with some amazing work from all over the school, the children get a certificate when their work is on display – these are also available for whenever they create wonderful work in class too!
This week I was lucky enough to have a visit from three year one children, who were so proud of their writing and wanted to show it off. I saw Lola Smith, Marshall Richardson and Aleksy Staniszewski, who had all created non-chronological reports on their favourite animals. Their presentation was beautiful and they could tell me all the interesting facts too! Well done Year 1 – I hope you are using your brand new pencils to create more wonderful work!
Miss Hetherington
Reading Ambassadors 2020/21
Every year we have a group of children in school who promote the LOVE of reading throughout school, these children are our Reading Ambassadors. These children are chosen for their love of reading and their ability to help others LOVE reading too.
Due to the Corona Virus we haven’t been able to meet as much as we would like to but when we have met we have had so much fun. We have made a list of events that we want to carry out, we have shared our favourite stories with each other, we have worked on ‘Kind Stories’ that we want to share with the rest of the school and we have even started thinking about next year.
The children are all fantastic and are doing the school proud. Mrs Atkinson (Year 1 Teacher) and myself can not wait to see all things READING this year and next. Keep it up everyone!
Miss Hetherington 🙂
National Story Telling Week 2021
During the last lock down we were lucky enough to celebrate National Story Telling Week both in school and at home. Everyone got to share their favourite stories, write their own stories, cook, sew and much, much more.
Everyone worked so hard and created some wonderful work, have a look below:
Virtual Author Visit 2021
We were very lucky this year to have two wonderful virtual author visits during World Book Day this year. Prior to the visit the children got to read the author’s books so we could ask lots of questions during the visit.
Year 5 and 6 had a visit from the wonderful Jenny Pearson, who wrote ‘The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates.’ The boys and girls had an instant connection with Jenny and they laughed non-stop throughout the whole visit. The children LOVED the book and found parts of it hilarious. Jenny also told us about her upcoming books and we can’t wait to read them.
We have copies of ‘The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates’ in school so if you would like to borrow one just ask the class teachers or email: English@southwickprimary.co.uk
Displays around School
Spring Writing Competition 2021
Once a term we celebrate writing by holding writing competitions for children all across the school. The children pick up an entry in school and complete it at home. We got over 100 entries for our Spring Writing Competition and they were all wonderful.
The children of Southwick have been working really hard on improving their writing skills and we are all very proud of them. Take a look at the winners below:
World Book Day 2021 – Year 6
The Year 6 children had a great day this year, and with it being their last World Book Day in Primary School so we made it extra special. We had an author visit (online), read our class book around the fire pit and even had a writing competition. Some of our children even joined us over Google Classroom!
World Book Day 2021 – Year 5
Year 5 had lots of fun during World Book Day. Take a look at the pictures below:
World Book Day 2021 – Year 4
Year 4 did lots of book-themed cooking – their classroom smelled delicious ALL week! Yummy!
World Book Day 2021 – Year 3
Year 3 had a wonderful World Book Day this year and were spotted around school in some wonderful costumes. What a brilliant bunch of children!
World Book Day 2021 – Year 2
Year 2 were so excited about World Book Day this year, even though there weren’t very many children in:
World Book Day 2021 – Year 1
Year 1 had lots of fun this year – don’t they look wonderful?
Get Caught Reading 2021
Every year we have a ‘Get Caught Reading’ competition, where staff, children and parents compete to ‘Get Caught Reading’ in the most peculiar (and safe) place! This year has been no exception so have a look at our Year 5 and 6 children below who have been ‘Caught Reading’:
World Book Day 2021 (At Home)
Even in Lock down our children managed to celebrate World Book Day 2021 in style! Take a look at some of the pictures below:
World Book Day 2020
We celebrate World Book Day every year and we LOVE it. Our children love to dress up as their favourite book characters, taking part in lots of book based activities and they especially LOVE seeing their teachers dress up.
What is your favourite book?
