Monthly Archives: September 2013

Parent View  gives you the chance to tell Ofsted what you think about your child’s school.

Parent View asks for your opinion on 12 aspects of your child’s school, from the quality of teaching, to dealing with bullying and poor behaviour.

By sharing your views, you’ll be helping your child’s school to improve. You will also be able to see what other parents have said about your child’s school. Or, if you want to, view the results for any school in England.

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Belgrave Library Performance Poetry Workshop for 9-14 year olds. Saturday 5th October

4.30-6.30 p.m.

There will be a performance for parents at 6.00 p.m.

Free – but numbers limited! Please call to book your place: 0116 2995500.

Watch out for more new on our upcoming festival celebrations.

Diwali shows will be on Tuesday 29^th and Wednesday 30^th October.

The Eid Evening will take place on Wednesday 6^th November.

1. Kids who read often and widely get better at
it. This is pretty much just common sense. After all, practice makes perfect in
almost everything we humans do and reading is no different.

2. Reading exercises our brains. Reading is a much more
complex task for the human brain than, say, watching TV is.
Reading strengthens brain connections and actually builds new connections.no-brainer.

3. Reading improves concentration. Again, this is a bit of a no-brainer. Children have to sit still and quietly so they can focus on the story when they’re reading. If they read regularly as they grow up, they develop the ability to do this for longer and longer periods.

4. Reading teaches children about the world around them. Through reading, they learn about people, places and events outside their own experience. They are exposed to ways of life, ideas and beliefs about the world which may be different from those which surround them. This learning is important for its own sake, however it also builds a store of background knowledge which helps younger children learn to read confidently and well.

5. Reading improves a child’s vocabulary, leads to more highly-developed language skills and improves the child’s ability to write well. This is because children learn new words as they read but also because they unconsciously absorb information as they read. They learn things like how to structure sentences and how to use words and language effectively.

6. Reading develops a child’s imagination. This is because when we read, our brains translate the descriptions we read of people, places and things into pictures. When we’re engaged in a story, we’re also imagining how the characters are feeling. We use our own experiences to imagine how we would feel in the same situation.

7. Reading helps kids develop empathy because you’re identifying with the character in the story so you’re feeling what they are feeling.

8. Because reading does all the things I’ve mentioned above, children who read do better at school. And they don’t just do better at subjects like reading, English and history. They do better at all subjects and they do better all the way through school.

9. Reading is a great form of entertainment! A paperback book doesn’t take up much space so you can take it anywhere and you’ll never be lonely or bored if you have a book in your bag. You can read while waiting in a queue, while waiting for a friend who’s running late or during a flight delay at an airport.

10. Reading relaxes the body and calms the mind. This is an important point because these days we seem to have forgotten how to relax and especially how to be silent.

Being able to read fluently and with understanding is the most important skill that our children and young people need to have. We ask our KS1 and KS2 pupils to read when they come into the playground in the morning. Just an extra 12 minutes reading in the morning adds up to a total of 38 hours over the school year. What a difference this can make to their reading ability and general level of education.

Parents can be role models for their children in the morning by reading too. In homes where the parents read, the children usually read too.

Year 6 now visit the library every Thursday afternoon and are all getting their own library cards.

 Mr Foster (Headteacher)

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