Harold Hill Library is running a Christmas reading challenge. It is to read 3 books over the Christmas holiday, if you manage to complete the challenge you will receive a certificate and bookmark. To take part go along to Harold Hill Library and ask a mamber of staff for more details. Please check library opening times over the Christmas period.

Meet the Author

On Thursday 50 year 4 and 5 children had the fantastic opportunity to meet the author Matt Brown at Hilldene Library. He was very funny and the children asked him many questions at the end of the session. It was a memorable and exciting experience for everyone. Matt Brown books will be available to borrow from the school library very shortly.

New Books

The book people are a website based company that sell books at very reasonable prices for both children and adults. They have just launched a fund raising scheme to enable schools to benefit from free books for the library and classrooms. It is really easy for everyone to take advantage of this offer. If you are considering buying any books for yourself or as a gift have a look at their website, put what you would like in your basket. If your purchase is over £10 select our school at the checkout stage and we will receive £1.

Treehouse Collection

There is a new collection of books in the library, The Treehouse Collection. The stories are about two friends, Andy and Terry, who live in a treehouse. The treehouse has many great features which include a giant catapult, a secret underground laboratory, a tank of man-eating sharks and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and shoots marshmallows into your mouth whenever you're hungry! The stories are hilarious and are told through a mixture of text and cartoon styles illustrations. If you like diary of a wimpy kid and Tom Gates these could be the next series for you to try.

Summer Reading Challenge

During celebration assembly on Friday I had the pleasure of presenting children with their certificates and medals for successfully completing the summer reading challenge. The participation from our school increased by 25% this year which is fantastic. Overall in Havering 3482 children (or 85%) managed to finish the challenge.

Havering Library Membership

 If you would like your child to become a Havering Library member, please see the letter below, an application form can be collected from and returned to the school office. This is a fantastic opportunity to support your child's reading for pleasure outside the school building as well as supporting Havering Library Service.

Havering Library Service

During October half term Havering Library Service are offering an exciting opportunity for your child to enjoy two of Roald Dahl's famous stories read by a professional storyteller, they are The Enormous Crocodile and The Twits. The sessions are interactive and fun encouraging audience participation and are being held at Hornchurch Library and Gidea Park Library on Thursday 24th Ocober. The cost per child is £3.50 for non library menbers or £2.50 for members. Booking in advance is essential with the library you wish to attend.

Roald Dahl Day 2019

Roald Dahl Day - 13th Sepember

On this date every year we celebrate the well loved children's author Roald Dahl. His magnificent stories and appealing characters have been adored by many generations of children.His stories are still part of the fabric of school life.  Many of the stories have been made into films and theatre shows therefore appealing to an even wider audience. There is a fantastic collection of his books in the school library if you would like to read one.

Summer Reading Challenge

The theme for this year's summer reading challenge is space and aliens. It will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of man stepping onto moon's lunar surface on 20th July 1969.Ther first person to do this was American astronaut Neil Armstrong, he famously said ' it is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'.

As usual you will need to read and review six books over the long summer holiday, collecting stickers, bookmarks, games and kit bags along your journey. All children who successfully complete the challenge will receive a gold medal and certificate during the autumn term.

The official launch is Saturday 13th July so go along to your public library and register to take part. It is free and fun. Havering has been at the top of the table for the past two years for the number of children who have completed the challenge, let's see if we can make it three in a row.

If you have any questions please come to see me or ask at your local library.

Mrs Martin

Library Books

The end of the school year is rapidly approaching, all library books need to be returned next week, week beginning 8th July. letters will be sent home the following week identifying books that have not been returned.Unfortunately if a book has been lost a contribution of £2.50 will need to be paid into your Squid account help meet the cost of a replacement. No further books will be loaned before the end of term.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Mrs Martin

Paddington Bear Day 2019

Paddington day was a great success. Our children enjoyed working in a team alongside children from Broadford, Brookside and Crowlands school. They had great fun finding stations on a tube map, finding facts on Peru (which is where Paddington used to live with Aunt Lucy) as well as facts about the author Michael Bond. Some children even enjoyed eating the marmalade sandwich they made.

Paddington Bear Day

Tomorrow, Thursday 13th June, twenty children will be walking to Broadford School to take part in a Paddington Bear themed day. There are 10 activities to complete including making a marmalade sandwich, writing a postcard to Aunt Lucy, finding train stations on an underground map and, of course, reading Paddington Bear stories. We will join children from three other schools, Broadford, Brookside and Crowlands on this exciting day.

Daisy Meadows

Daisy Meadows is our new author of the term. However she is not one author but a collection of four!! The ladies have chosen to write the fairy adventure books under a made up name, or pseudonym. Their real names are Narinder Dhami, Sue Bentley, Linda Chapman and Sue mongredien. There is a large selction of the very popular fairy stories in the library and classroom reading corners.

Annual Book Fair

Our annual book fair arrived in school last week on a red bus!! The children were very excited to visit and browse the selection of books on sale. The books were very reasonably priced with a fantastic selction and friendly staff. There were many happy faces leaving the bus to go back to the classroom. The bus was a resounding success and will be seen in KS2 playground next year.Thank you to everyone who made the event run smoothly.

 

Annual Book Fair

On Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th May we will be hosting our annual book fair.

This year we have arranged a book bus to come to school. Each class will be given the opportunity to visit the bus during the school day and browse the selection of books available to purchase. The company suggest, as a guide, that pupils bring approximately £5 if they would like to buy a book. The majority of books are priced at either £4 or £5.

If you would like to provide your child with some money to buy a book, please ensure that it is sealed in an envelope with their name clearly visiable .

We hope that this is an exciting event and is successful in promoting reading for pleasure.

Mrs Martin

World Book Day 2019

It's world book day this week a time to celebrate books and the joy of reading.Our focus story is Roald Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine. Staff have been very busy recreating scenes and making props from the story to add to the atmosphere.Dressing up day will be on Friday 8th March, the theme is any Roald Dahl character. As usual book tokens will be given to all children, they can swap them for any of the books printed for world book day which are avaialable from bookshops and selected supermarkets. Alternatively they can be used to get a disount off the price of any other children's book. How will you use your token?

There are many Roald Dahl books for you to borrow from the school library, maybe consider reading one this week.

 

 

 

 

Tom Palmer

Tom Palmer is the author of over 45 books for children, the majoirty of which are sport themed, mainly football. In fact it was reading about football that changed his life. He wasn't a very enthusiastic reader when he was young as he found it very difficult. His Mum encouraged him to read newspaper articles, magazines and books about football, gradually he began to love reading as he wanted to find out more about his favourite sport. He went to night school to enrol on A Level courses when he was 21, 5 years after most of his friends, and began a degree course in European Literature when he was 24. He had several jobs before becoming an author including milkman, warehouse worker, book salesman, librarian and audiologist for The Royal Institute for the Blind. Whilst he was working he wrote various books and was fortunate to have a football story printed by Puffin Books. Since then he hasn't looked back and still continues to wirte, promote reading for pleasure and visit schools to enourage children to read. When Tom is not writing he loves to travel to different countries to have many experiences that he can hopefully include in his stories. When he has time he loves to run especially fell running near where he lives.

Tom has a fantastic website full of lots of great information, fun activities and free reads, take a look when you have spare time.
www.tompalmer.co.uk