Welcome to the Reading Council

At St Matthew’s, our Reading Council is made up of a dedicated team of pupils who share a passion for books, authors and all things reading! Working alongside Miss O’Gorman, we help to develop and celebrate a strong reading culture across our school community.

The Reading Council plays an important role in:

• Organising reading events and competitions throughout the year
• Visiting classes to promote reading for pleasure
•  Supporting the upkeep and organisation of our library spaces
• Creating and leading new reading initiatives to inspire others

We aim to make reading exciting, inclusive and enjoyable for everyone at St Matthew’s. This year, we’re looking forward to launching lots of new ideas and continuing to share the joy of stories across our school!

Autumn Term

Reading Area Audit

After lots of hard work last year on our classroom reading areas, the Reading Council undertook an audit of these spaces in September. The children looked at how the spaces are used and organised and reflected on how reading is best shared and promoted in classrooms. They were extremely thorough and gave some excellent and constructive feedback to class teachers on how best to utilise these spaces. 

Book Swap Houses

In a bid to create a family of readers here at St Matthew's, the Reading Council came up with a way of encourage participation from the whole community. They were inspired to create a book swap area which can be used by children and their families. They set themselves with the task of writing a letter to the PTA to ask for their help with purchasing some book swap houses of the school playground. Fingers Crossed! 

After the successful fundraising from Cray Hair day, the Reading Council were able to purchase some book swap reading houses (yipee!). They quickly set about creating some posters to encourage families to add to and take from them. They hope to inspire lots of wonderful story times with these fantastic purchases! A HUGE thank you to the PTA for all of their support!

Class Visits 

In October, the Reading Council visited classes to inspire and entertain children with books. They performed puppet shows, shared story sacks and delivered quizzes based on well-known and exciting stories. The Reading Council and the rest of the school loved this experience and we can't wait to do it again!