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! 

Our Book Swap Houses Have Arrived

The Scholastic Book Fair

Our Reading Council loved taking the lead at our annual travelling book fair. They organised the stalls, greeted parents and children, recommended books and took payments. As always, it was an incredibly successful and enjoyable event for all! 

A visit from the Book Bus

The reading council enjoyed returning books to the book bus and selecting new reads for all of the children to enjoy. They were extremely thorough and ensured they selected books that covered a range of topics, genres and interests for all ages! 

Spring Term

World book Day

For World Book Day, our dedicated and enthusiastic Reading Council set up a book cafe for children and their families to enjoy together. Throughout the day, children for reception to year 6 visited the book cafe with their families and read their favourite stories with juice and biscuits. It was a roaring success!

And, as always, children and staff donned their book-inspired costumes in celebration of stories new and old. Everyone looked fantastic. 

World Poetry Day

For World Poetry Day, our dedicated Reading Council created a wonderful outdoor space where children and adults could read and write poetry. Poems were hung up in the space to be read and enjoyed by others. The space was a huge hit with many children visiting multiple times!