Year 3 have been reading, 'The 1,000 year old boy', which is a story where a Stone Age boy is able to live for over a 1,000 but this has many ups and downs. The children have enjoyed discussing the text, making predictions, making inferences and retrieving information. 

In Year 4, we’ve been reading The Leopard in the Golden Cage, an exciting adventure full of mystery, courage, and friendship. We’ve been discussing the characters, the twists in the story, and what we might have done if we were in their place!

This term, Year 4 are shining the spotlight on David Walliams! Known for his hilarious and heartwarming stories like Gangsta Granny, Mr Stink, and The World's Worst Children, Walliams’ books are full of unforgettable characters and laugh-out-loud moments. We’ll be exploring his stories to discover what makes his writing so entertaining and how he brings humour and kindness together in every tale.

Thank you to all the year one parents who came to our wonderful reading workshop.

Year 1 enjoyed taking part in the Take 10 event with Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart. They loved listening to their stories and even followed Nick Sharratt's instructions to draw some of his illustrations. 

During our Take 10 Reading Challenge, the children in Reception loved using a range of props and story resources to help them retell their favourite stories. They confidently used resources to bring familiar stories to life, using expressive language and imaginative play to recreate key events. This hands-on storytelling not only developed their communication and language skills but also deepened their understanding of story structure and character roles. The children showed great enthusiasm and teamwork.

A huge thank you to parents, staff and children for your generosity and support during our recent Book Fair. Every class enjoyed visiting, choosing books, and spending their money on some of their favourite authors.

Thanks to your amazing support, we’ve received 38 free books for our classrooms and reading room, giving children even more opportunities to enjoy stories and develop a love of reading. We’re so grateful for your continued support in making reading such a joyful part of school life.

Year 4 had a fantastic time visiting the Boggledy Book Fair! The children enjoyed browsing a wide range of exciting books, with plenty of brilliant choices priced between £1 and £3. Everyone left with big smiles and new stories to dive into—happy reading, Year 4!

Year 3 had a fantastic time taking part in the Take 10 Author Event, where they were joined by award-winning illustrator Dorien Brouwers. The children loved learning step-by-step drawing techniques from Dorien and were inspired by her creativity. She also introduced her beautiful new book Life, which the class can now enjoy in our reading room thanks to the generous copies we received. 

The children have absolutely loved exploring our class text Supertato! They’ve thrown themselves into the story with so much excitement and creativity. From designing their own Supertato and Evil Pea characters to giggling their way through catching and tying up Evil Pea, the classroom has been full of fun. The children also enjoyed making peas out of playdough and taking part in lots of other Supertato-themed activities — a fantastic way to bring the story to life!

Year 4 had a fantastic time taking part in the Take 10 Author Event, where they were joined by award-winning illustrator Dorien Brouwers. The children loved learning step-by-step drawing techniques from Dorien and were inspired by her creativity. She also introduced her beautiful new book Life, which the class can now enjoy in our reading room thanks to the generous copies we received. 

Our Year 2 children loved spending time in the school reading room this week. They explored the shelves, chose books that sparked their interest, and enjoyed settling down to read together. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm for stories and their growing confidence as independent readers.

Summer Reading Challenge achievers! 

The Nursery children enjoyed their first visit to the Reading Room today. They spent time looking at the books and listened to a story.

Reading learning from 2024-2025

Year 4 attended the Doncaster Storytelling Event. They met real authors, heard about what inspired the authors writing and they all chose a book of their choice that had been written by one of the authors. 

Year 1 love having quiet storytime in the reading room.

Reception had the best day dressing up as their favourite characters. They especially enjoyed making potions and writing recipes for potions.

For world Book Day, the children enjoyed taking part with our creative write. The children in year 3 have created their own fairy tale versions of little red riding hood.

The nursery children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day. The day was full of stories and of course a trip to the Reading Room.

Year 1 loved dressing up as their favourite story character. They listened to our class story 'Jack and the Beanstalk', wrote letters to the giant asking him not to destroy the village and painted giant artwork.

Year 2 enjoyed celebrating world book day 2025. We read the story 'Goldilocks and the three bears', children then created shoe box settings and wrote a descriptive piece of writing. 

Children in Reception got nice and comfy in the reading room to share and enjoy their favourite books.

Year 2 enjoyed visiting the reading room during our immerse lesson. They explored a range of narratives and discussed the similarities and difference. They also spotted some books by Roald Dahl who is our spotlight author this half term. Year 2 are really enjoyed our new text 'George's marvellous medicine'. 

Year 3 enjoyed taking part in a webinar with Kersti Worsley a famous author of 'Maths through stories'. The children enjoyed listening and learning in this live webinar.

Year two joined a webinar where they were joined by Kersti Worsley an author of some best-selling 'maths through stories' books. 

Emme was chosen to ask Kersti a question, she asked "Did you like writing stories when you were my age?" 

Year three enjoyed spending their time in our reading room, to read pages of our class reader book ‘Mr Gum’ to the rest of the class. They enjoyed discussing the funny moments from this text.

The year 1s love being in the reading room for book club and sharing stories together.

To immerse ourselves in our new class text, the children in year 5 explored the author and other books that she has written.

Year 1 listened to the author event and enjoyed hearing about how the author became an author and an extract from her book.

Year 2 enjoyed taking part in the take 10 challenge in support of mental health week. It was lovely to hear the children sharing their thoughts on how reading books makes them feel. 

Year three enjoyed taking part in the take 10 challenge in support of mental health week. The children enjoyed listening to our online authors and getting lost in their favourite books.

The children in year 5 explored black, female authors and illustrators through the popular magazine collection, Cocoa Boy and Cocoa Girl. They enjoyed finding out the inspiration and purpose of the author and celebrating the confidence the magazine brings to children everywhere.

To celebrate finishing our class text of Beowulf, the children in year 5 wrote a book review giving a brief summary of the text and a star rating of recommendation.

EYFS children enjoying the opportunity to read a book outside in the new Reading Shed. 

FS1 - Developing their early enjoyment and understanding of books by visiting 'The Reading Room'.

Year 2 have enjoyed reading two stories by Babette Cole: Prince Cinders and King Change-a- lot. They compared the two stories and then focused on inference and retrieval. 

Year Four's class reading book this half term is 'Leopard in the Golden Cage'. The children have identified the characters, first thoughts, made predictions and drawn on their wider reading to make comparisons. 

Children in Reception really enjoy visiting the Reading Room to choose a reading for pleasure book to take home and share with their adults.

Before reading the text, Year 5 explored what they could infer from the front cover and blurb of the book and made predictions on what they were going to read. They then identified key characters and events and discussed their first thoughts and questions they had based of the text.

Take a look at some of the amazing responses the children produced when questioned on what they had read so far!

The children in Year 5 took the opportunity to visit the reading room to enjoy reading for pleasure and chose to listen to our new 'Spotlight Author' book, Giant. Many of the children are now enjoying this as their class reading book!

Y3 enjoyed taking part in the live picture news assembly with many other schools across the UK. They particularly enjoyed discussing ‘how we enjoy to let our light shine’.

The Year 5 'Author Spotlight' for Autumn 1 is Nicola Skinner and the children are invited to read her new book, Giant. This book follows the story of a young girl named Minnie and her adventures where she lives. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with where Minnie lived. Nothing, that is, apart from the earthquakes, which pull buildings and schools and houses down on a regular basis. Luckily, the island’s inhabitants have found a way to fix their crumbling walls: giants. 

A huge well done to Emme in Year 2, she completed the reading challenge over the summer holidays. Emme read lots of books during summer and was awarded a certificate and lots of stickers.

Scan the QR code and sit back and listen to two of Reception children fluently, and with expression, read their book. I am sure you will agree, this is outstanding reading from some of our youngest children.

We were lucky enough to be invited to an author event with the amazing Michael Rosen to mark the beginning of Refugee Week. He shared lots of poetry about where we fit in, in the world and shared many stories about the journeys that refugees make to find a home.

The children thoroughly enjoyed reading their class text this half term- Boy in the Tower. They were completely hooked, right up until the very last chapter and were happy to know that all of the characters survived the deadly 'Blutchers'.

Let's hope they never invade Stainforth!

Year 4 have read Harley Jones and the mystery of the Mayan King in Summer 1. The children have worked really hard to provide evidence from the text when answering inference questions. 

Children in Reception really enjoy visiting the Reading Room to choose a reading for pleasure book to take home and share with their adults.

Here is some of Y3s learning around skills such as predicting, retrieving, and inferring. The children have enjoyed reading the boy who biked the world this term, and have used the text to inspire their own adventure narratives.

In Year 3, the children have enjoyed reading Them Ancient Egypt Sleepover’, and building on their comprehensive skills such as inferring from the text using evidence, using dictionaries to check meaning of words, and predicting what might happen in the text.

We had lots of fun in Nursery for World Book Day. We enjoyed doing lots of superhero artwork. We also went to the reading room where we enjoyed listening to a story in our book club before selecting books to enjoy ourselves and to take home.

We loved exploring our hero theme this year. Can you spot any heroes in our class?

Year 2 loved dressing up for World Book Day, our theme was Heroes and Villains! Do you recognise any? 

What a fantastic day Reception have had. It's been all about books, books, books! Children have enjoyed listening to stories in the reading room, they have read stories themselves, written wanted posters for villains, written words to describe why we love reading and written quotes from their favourite characters. All the children made an exceptional effort with their costumes too!

In year 3, the children have been celebrating world book day with some hot seating activities, where they had to guess which class peers were villains or superhero’s. The children also enjoyed creating a recommended read folder for class 3. In this recommended read folder, the children had expressed their favourite authors, book characters, quotes, books, and illustrators. The children took inspiration from their book club books, and recommended reads. 

Year 4 celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as their favourite characters.

Holy Family staff performed a story to celebrate World Book Day!

Year 6 enjoyed reading Private Peaceful this half term as it provided lots of information relating to our topic

Year 2 were thrilled to hear from Swapna Haddow, we enjoyed listening to a chapter from her new book! 

We then researched and explored the author, maybe we will choose her for our next Spotlight author!

"Swapna Haddow is the multi award-winning children’s author of the Dave Pigeon series, which has received rave reviews since first publishing in 2016. Dave Pigeon went on to win three regional awards in the UK and was shortlisted for the prestigious Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award."

Year 1 joined a very interesting author event. We met Swapna Haddow, a multi award-winning children’s author. Swapna loves to write about boisterous animals that cause mayhem and has written the Bad Panda and Ballet Bunnies series

Year 4 have a new spotlight author this half term! Our author is C.S Lewis. The children have been ‘getting lost’ in one of his famous fantasy narratives, ‘the lion, the witch and wardrobe!’.

The children have also recommended books to one another and given reasons for their recommendations.

This week, the children in Year 4 chose to listen to The lost Rainforest: Mez's magic as the 'Book I'd Like to Read Again'. The children were desperate to know if Lima (a bat in the story) had survived the dangers of the rainforest. 

In Y3s reading room time, some of the children chose to read a short extract to the class, from a book they had chosen from our visit last week. Y3 children discussed why we liked this book and what made it an interesting and enjoyable read.

Year two really enjoy visiting the reading room to share stories and discuss our favourite books. This week we focused on different genres making links to our literacy topic and also sharing a story from our spotlight author, Anthony Browne.

During the second session of our parent meetings, adults were introduced to how their children are learning to read words by blending sounds together. They were also made aware of Fred Talk and how he can help children with their reading. Parents were also informed of how they can help their children read at home.

Today In Y3, we visited Stainforth Library where the children were able to immerse their selfs in a range of different books. The children enjoyed reading different genres in a comfortable and calming setting. Y3 were also able to choose a book to take back to school with them to read.

Nursery enjoy visiting the Reading Room every week. We have to go carefully up the stairs, making sure we hold on tight. Once we are up there, we explore the books and choose one to take home. We enjoy listening to a story whilst we are there.

Year 2 Reading Room 

Year 2 enjoy visiting the reading room weekly. The children select a book to 'read for pleasure' they enjoy exploring different genres and sharing stories together in the reading room, particularly the soft cushion seats! 

Year 6 - Stainforth Library visit

Year 6 enjoyed their time at the local Stainforth library reading a variety of books for pleasure...

Year 2 Library Visit 

Year 2 enjoyed visiting the library to sign up and receive their own library card. We shared lots of books together and discussed how the library was arranged similar to ours, discussing the different genres. 

Y3 enjoyed taking part in the MG Leonard Virtual Author event, with the National Literacy Trust.

Year 5 Author Event- Illustrator Jackie Morris

Year 5 enjoyed taking part in an author event with the illustrator Jackie Morris. We learnt about her inspiration and methods used for drawing and we were introduced to her new book of illustrations depicting animals in poems. We all agreed that her pictures really were beautiful.

Take 10 with Ziggy Hanaor and Ollie Silvester, the author-illustrator duo behind Gory Rory Fangface Needs A Kiss.

The children enjoyed listening about Susie Dents discussion around taking time out for reading. Y3 discussed how they might like to participate in take 10 in the future. For example poetry writing, or story writing.

The children have enjoyed reading the Iron Man book. Throughout this term, children have developed their reasoning, predicting, inferencing, and retrieval skills. 

Year 5 Book Talk- Beowulf

The children thoroughly enjoyed reading their class text this half term and were eager to find out what happened to Beowulf as he battled monsters and beasts throughout the story. The loved exploring the characters and their motives and even, at times, empathised with the beasts as they sought their revenge against the hero himself. Take a look at some of the amazing work and responses the children developed in lessons as they explored the text...

In Book Talk, Year 6 have really enjoyed reading and answering a variety of comprehension questions on our class book; Who Let the Gods Out? by Maz Evans...

Year 6 took part in the Literacy Trust initiative Take 10 which involves 10 minutes reading for pleasure. We also met the famous Susie Gent from Countdown who talked to us about how reading is an important pleasure in her life...

Year 5- Reading Room

The children really enjoyed their visit to the reading room this week to take the chance to read for pleasure.

Year 4 have visited Stainforth Library where they explored different text types. They read to their peers and listened to library staff read a chosen text to them. 

Year 5 Author Event- #Take 10 with Susie Dent

The children enjoyed taking part in a '#Take 10' for mental health author event with Susie Dent.

They learnt all about lexicology and explored their own favourite words and why they are special to them.

Year 4 took part in #Take10ToRead. The children listened to wordsmith, Suzie Dent, who discussed how taking time out to read can be beneficial for our mental health as well as our reading miles. 

Year 5- Beowulf

The children were excited to start their new class text- Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo. They explored the first chapter of the book and identified important characters and facts they now know. They then developed questions based on what they would like to find out as we read the book further and gave their opinions on the text so far.

We can't wait to find out what happens!

Year 2- National Literacy Trust author event. They enjoyed watching the National Literacy Trust #take10toread author event. We listened to a story written by Ziggy Hanoar and illustrated by Ollie Silvester. They discussed why they chose to write and illustrate the story the way they did and we listened to them read the story. 

All of the fantastic learning and events below took place in the academic year of 2022-2023.

Year 4 had an author visit from Philip Sheppard. He shared books he had written and illustrated, and even gave us a sneak peek into the new book he’s currently working on. The children completed a draw along with Philip Sheppard, which shows we may have some future illustrators at Holy Family.

Reading- Parvana's Journey

The children in year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed immersing themselves in their new class book- Parvana's Journey. This story follows the adventures of a young girl, whose father has just died, on her way to find her mother and sisters. Take a look at what they have been working on so far.

Year 4 created 3D portraits of famous books that they have enjoyed reading. Can you recognise some of the famous titles? 

Year 1 World Book Day 2023! Year 1 really enjoyed dressing up as their favourite book characters this year and working together with Year 2 to create artwork for our chosen book 'The Enormous hungry crocodile.' We created a 3D crocodile's body to display in our reading room using paint, cardboard, paper and glue! We also created wooden spoon characters from the story such as crocodiles, monkeys and elephants. 

Holy Family Recommended Reads