Our Reading Reward Scheme

Why have we introduced these schemes?

Reading at home is one of the most important ways in which you can help your child. Children who read with their families develop these skills much more quickly and develop a love of reading that can last a lifetime. At St. Patrick’s we recognise the really important role parents have and want to support this in every way we can, and we hope these schemes will really motivate children to read at home.

How does it work?

The schemes are very simple. All children have to do is read at home and have their Home School Diary signed by an adult.

For younger children we ask the children to read their school reading book. We recognise the importance of all reading experiences, like bedtime stories, but for the purposes of our scheme we only reward when children read their school reading book. We expect this reading will take place with an adult as the children will still need lots of support.

As the children become more independent readers and move off our colour banded books onto our Key Stage Two readers and free readers, we realise that they will read a much more varied range of books and sometimes read on their own. If children are reading on their own please ask them a few questions about what they have read before you sign the diary to ensure they have carefully read and fully understood the text. However, we would still recommend you regularly listen to your child read aloud to develop fluency, expression and awareness of audience. The whole point of the scheme is to improve reading standards and this will only happen if children are having quality reading sessions.

The class teacher will check the diary to see how many times it has been signed and when they have enough reads at home signed, the children will earn their first reward. They can then start working towards their next reward.

With the start of each new academic year the scheme will begin again with a new set of rewards.

What is the Read to Succeed reward scheme?

The Read to Succeed reward system has been designed to encourage our older children to read at home and is centred around being ‘star’ readers. The scheme is for all the children at St. Patrick’s.

What are the rewards? 

• 35 reads = a bronze star pin badge
• 70 reads (another 35) = a reading certificate
• 120 reads (another 50) = a silver star pin badge
• 170 reads (another 50) = a gold star pin badge and a Read to Succeed afternoon tea with Principal or Ice-Cream Picnic with the Principal at the end of term