NOTTS: Honouring achievements of county’s young readers

A range of books helping children with their literacy

The awards celebrate schools and teachers who have made an outstanding contribution to children’s literacy through Reading Recovery.

Netherfield Primary School and Northfield Primary and Nursery School in Mansfield Woodhouse are among the winners in the Reading Recovery School of the Year Awards.

And picking up awards in the Reading Recovery Children’s Competition are Gerrard Colmer and Kloe Chapman-Moxon from Northfield Primary School and Olivia Taylor from Keyworth Primary School.

Chris Tyler, Reading Recovery teacher at Keyworth Primary, said that the school was a designated Every Child a Reader School and that many of the children had made tremendous strides with their reading and writing.

Chris added: “I work with individual children and provide them with a range of different strategies to improve both their reading and writing. Olivia was one of the children working on Reading Recovery and it is so rewarding to see the improvements she has made over the last year.”

The competition was to do a short piece of writing and a picture to show your thoughts about reading.

Olivia said: “I like reading in my head. It makes me have pictures in my head.” She will attend the London awards with her mum Amy and Mrs Tyler.

Jo Mulligan, the Reading Recovery teacher at Netherfield Primary School, said that the reading team had worked hard to put reading for pleasure at the heart of the school.

She added: “We held a Secret Reading Mission during October half term, which saw families hunting across the community to unlock a secret code. Staff also worked through half term to completely makeover our school library, turning it from an overcrowded place where group work happened, into a light, spacious area where children come to enjoy reading, relaxing on giant beanbags or on the windowsill.

“We have introduced lots of initiatives to promote reading such as competitions to win trips to bookshops, raffles, Reading Olympics, The Reading Super League and Reading Assemblies, where children can take the lead.”