Year 4 Reading: Building Skills with Reading Eggs

In Year 4, pupils regularly use Reading Eggs to help develop their reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and confidence. The programme provides engaging reading activities, interactive lessons, and quizzes that support children as they become more fluent and independent readers. Reading Eggs is designed around the key elements of successful reading, including phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. 

Children enjoy working through activities at their own level, receiving instant feedback and rewards that help keep them motivated and engaged. The programme also includes a wide range of texts and comprehension tasks that encourage pupils to think carefully about what they read.

While Reading Eggs is a valuable tool in school, we encourage pupils to use it regularly at home as well. Even a short amount of practice can help strengthen reading skills and build confidence over time. Reading Eggs can be accessed on a range of devices, making it easy for children to continue their learning beyond the classroom.

We are delighted to see Year 4 pupils developing their reading skills and enjoying their Reading Eggs journey! 📚✨

🌟 Year 5 Take Over Day – A Brilliant Morning! 🌟

We had a wonderful experience during Take Over Day, when two fantastic Year 5 pupils took on the roles of teacher and teaching assistant in our Reading into Writing lesson.

Our Year 5 teacher confidently introduced a WAGOLL for a balanced argument, guiding the children to identify key features within the text. The class were fully engaged and showed great understanding as they picked out important elements together.

With great teamwork, the Year 5 teaching assistant supported throughout, helping the lesson run smoothly and ensuring everyone stayed on track.

The lesson continued with an engaging guided reading session focusing on prosody, using “Devon Cream Tea”. The “I say, you say” approach encouraged expressive reading, and the classroom was filled with enthusiastic voices.

It was a fabulous morning, and the children thoroughly enjoyed having them lead the class.

A huge thank you to our Year 5 teacher and teaching assistant—you were brilliant! 👏

📚✨ Year 6 Library Adventure ✨📚

This week, Year 6 had a fantastic trip up to the school library—and what a brilliant time we had! 🏫➡️📖

As soon as we arrived, everyone settled into the cosy reading spaces, ready to explore the wide range of books on offer. From colourful picture books 🎨📘 to exciting stories full of adventure, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

One of the highlights of our visit was sharing picture books together. 👩‍🏫👨‍🏫 Even though we are one of the oldest year groups in the school, we loved diving into these beautifully illustrated stories. The artwork helped bring the stories to life, and we enjoyed discussing the characters, themes, and hidden meanings. 🖼️💡

Reading with friends made the experience even more special. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑📚 We took turns reading aloud, listening carefully, and sharing our thoughts. There were lots of smiles 😊, laughter 😂, and thoughtful conversations along the way.

Spending time in the library reminded us how enjoyable reading can be. It’s not just about learning—it’s also about imagination, creativity, and relaxing with a good book. 🌟📖

We can’t wait for our next visit!

📌 Year 6 Top Tip: Don’t forget—picture books aren’t just for younger children. They can inspire readers of all ages! 💬✨

Year 5 were delighted to welcome Nathan Parker, a Blackpool-based performance poet, author and spoken word artist, into school. Nathan, who is proud of his northern roots, shared his journey from growing up in Blackpool to becoming a successful writer and performer, explaining how his experiences, challenges and surroundings have shaped his work. 12

During the session, Nathan spoke openly about his upbringing and how he discovered a love for writing, using poetry as a way to express real-life thoughts and emotions. He performed some of his own poems, showing the children how spoken word poetry brings writing to life through rhythm, voice and performance. 3

A key part of his visit was challenging the children’s ideas about what a poet ‘should’ look like. Nathan encouraged them to think beyond stereotypes and introduced them to a wider world of poets, including influential voices such as Maya Angelou and Benjamin Zephaniah, helping pupils see that poetry comes from many different backgrounds, styles and experiences.

The session was highly interactive, with Nathan leading fun and engaging writing activities that inspired creativity and confidence. The highlight of the visit was a whole-class collaborative poem, where every child contributed their own ideas and lines. Guided by Nathan, the class worked together to shape their thoughts into a powerful shared piece of writing, celebrating their voices and imagination. 4

Nathan’s energy, honesty and relatable approach made a lasting impact on the children, leaving them inspired to continue writing and to see themselves as poets in their own right.

In Year 4, shared reading plays an important role in our weekly Guided Reading sessions. By reading together as a group, pupils build confidence, fluency, and a deeper understanding of texts in a supportive environment.

Shared reading allows children to hear fluent reading modelled by adults and peers, while also giving them opportunities to join in, discuss vocabulary, and explore meaning. Pupils are encouraged to ask questions, make predictions, and share their ideas, helping them feel more confident when talking about books.

These weekly sessions also support pupils who may feel less confident reading independently, as everyone works together and supports one another. Over time, children grow in confidence, accuracy, and enjoyment of reading.

Shared reading helps foster a positive reading culture in the classroom and encourages pupils to see reading as something to enjoy and share. It has been lovely to see Year 4 becoming more confident, enthusiastic readers each week.

As part of our Reading into Writing journey, we focused on the Immersion in Reading phase using the genre of non‑chronological reports. We previously explored a WAGOLL to identify and discuss the key features of this text type. Today, we examined a different non‑chronological report and used Post‑it notes to identify its features. We discussed how many features can be recognised without reading the text in full, such as the title, subheadings, images with captions or labelled diagrams, paragraphs and fact boxes. We then skimmed and scanned the text to identify technical vocabulary related to the specific subject of the report. Finally, we cut out the features and organised them onto a sheet to deepen our understanding of how non‑chronological reports are structured.

Year 5 enjoyed an exciting visit to The Attic, our school library, where they had the opportunity to explore a wide range of new class reading books. The children thoughtfully browsed the shelves, sharing recommendations and enthusiastically telling each other about stories they had previously enjoyed. They spent time reading the first few pages of several books that caught their interest, carefully considering which one would become their personal choice. The session was filled with animated discussions, curiosity, and a genuine love of reading, as each child selected a book they were excited to take back to class and explore further.

 

In Guided Reading this week, we focused on building confidence and expression through poetry. We explored a poem about returning to school after half term and talked about how the feelings linked to our own experiences. We used an I say, you say approach to practise prosody and intonation, listening carefully to how the poem should sound. Some of us then bravely read the poem aloud to the class, using clear voices and expression.

📚 Year 6 Class Novel Update 📚

Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed reading Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman this term. The novel sparked lots of thoughtful discussion and encouraged pupils to think deeply about challenging choices and moral dilemmas. It prompted mature conversations and helped develop empathy and understanding. Although emotional at times, the children found it engaging and very memorable. A powerful story that led to great learning conversations in class!

 

In Year Two, we have been using active spelling to help us learn and remember our spellings. The children loved building words, shaping letters with pipe cleaners, using drawing pads, and practising rainbow writing. These hands-on activities helped us embed our spellings in a fun and memorable way, keeping everyone engaged and excited about learning. Fantastic effort, Year Two!

Today, our Year 4 children have been busy exploring a brand‑new reading resource in school: Reading Eggs – and the response has been overwhelmingly positive!

From the moment the children logged in for the first time, there was a buzz of excitement around the classroom. The colourful design, friendly characters and interactive activities immediately captured their attention. For many pupils, it didn’t feel like “work” at all – more like a fun challenge they couldn’t wait to get started on.

🌟 Spelling Bee Success! 🐝📚

Today, our school was buzzing with excitement as children from Year 2 to Year 6 took part in our annual Spelling Bee! 🏆✨

Over the past few weeks, pupils have been working incredibly hard to learn their spellings. From tricky letter blends to confident articulation, they have shown real dedication. 💪🧠

When the moment arrived, each participant demonstrated remarkable resilience and courage. Taking the stage in front of the whole school is no small task, yet our spellers stood tall, spoke clearly, and gave it their very best. 🎤👏

We are incredibly proud of every child who took part. Their effort, determination, and enthusiasm made today a wonderful celebration of learning. 🎉📖

A huge well done to all our super spellers! 🌈⭐

This week, Year 5 have been exploring two different chapters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory—the chapters focusing on Veruca Salt and Charlie Bucket. The children have been comparing the two characters by finding evidence from the text to support their ideas about each character’s personality traits.