Reading Newsletter

Dear All,

What a fantastic year of reading we have enjoyed at Lark Rise! We have enjoyed the additional sustainability library, a book swap, live author events and three Booknics. So many children have engaged in their class reading books and it has also been lovely to hear many of them share their favourite books and authors in our Book Chats across the year. The Reading Ambassadors have done an amazing job of supporting reading across the school and we are very proud of them. 

To round off our love of reading, we held our final Booknic of the year, with school adults invited to share their favourite children's books with the children. This year we were able to do this on the field and the weather was just right for a proper picnic of books! It was really lovely to celebrate reading for pleasure in this way. All children were able to choose to hear four books or extracts from books being read to them by adults from across the school and there were lots of recognisable favourites as well as some lovely new choices such as "The Book with No Pictures" which was read by Mrs White and had the children joining in and laughing lots! There are some photos further down the page.

Next week, you will be receiving the details of your child's Summer Reading Challenge set by each key stage. We look forward to discussing the books and completing some work based on them in the first couple of weeks in September. The books are:

• KS1 - How to Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers

• LKS2 -  Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

• UKS2 - The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf

In addition to our school Summer Reading Challenge, Dunstable Library are also running an excellent Summer Reading Challenge. This year’s Challenge is called Read to the Beat and it’s all about music! It’s been designed to tie in with the National Year of Reading 2026. It’s running Friday 17th July to Saturday 5th September. Sign up at the library and collect the Read to the Beat sticker booklet and stamp card - then choose your books and take them home to read. When you return your books to the library, your child can collect stamps on their stamp card and stickers for their poster. There are six stickers to collect in total. If you complete the challenge, you will be entered into a lucky dip at for the chance to win a £40 voucher for The Works . There are also craft activities and a treasure hunt to keep everyone entertained over the Summer break. The children have been told about this in an assembly visit by Carly from Dunstable Library and they were very excited about this.

Thank you for supporting reading. We wish you all a wonderful Summer.

Kind regards,

Mrs Smith and Mrs Francis