Summer Reading 2015
Dear Y1 to Y5 Parents,
Research has shown that the long summer holidays can produce what is known as the summer slide. This is where children, particularly struggling readers, don’t read and actually take backwards steps due to a lack of practice. Many children forget what they have learned or slip out of practice during this time. Supplying readers with interesting and accessible books leads to improvements in reading, whilst self-selected voluntary reading leads to the greatest gains in reading achievement and other aspects of literacy (Krashen, 2004.)
At QBS we would like to take some preventative measures to ensure that our students continue to make good progress during the summer holidays, therefore we are offering summer borrowing to those children currently in Years 1 – 5 who will be continuing their learning with us in August 2015. Each child will be allowed to borrow up to 10 books. We have run this program for several years now and it has proved to be very popular with both children and parents. People are often concerned about the amount of books we might lose over the summer, but let us reassure you that at QBS our children value books and the number of books that go missing are incredibly small (much less than 1%.)
REQUIREMENTS
In order to qualify for our summer reading program your child needs to have NO OVERDUE LOANS – all books will need to be returned DURING THE WEEK 8TH– 12TH JUNE.
Years 1 & 2
During our Celebration of Learning day on 12th June the Learning Centre will be open FOR Y1 & 2 ONLY. It is hoped that you will come with your child and help them select books they are interested in. It would be helpful if you could come along at your designated time slot as we will be very busy during the day and this will help to stagger the number of children. Please bring a bag – this will help keep the books clean and together.
Years 3- 5
PARENTS MUST SIGN UP to give permission for borrowing, using the e-notice that will be sent out to you on FRIDAY 5TH JUNE. Years 3, 4 & 5 will then have the chance to borrow their books during their regular library sessions, Tuesday-Friday 16th-19th June and on Monday 22nd June. Please give your child a bag to bring on their borrowing day, as this will help keep the books clean and together.
RETURNS
The books will need to be returned to school during the second week of term (week beginning 24th August, 2015).
Please encourage your child to participate in this program as we believe it is extremely worthwhile. We are very excited about this and can’t wait to see our shelves emptying and our motivated and confident readers return in August.
Jessica McGraw & May Tang.
Krashen, S. (2004) The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research, 2nd edition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.