Very often, you will notice that students will walk past the library hall or just moan at the thought of spending time there. Understood, libraries have so long been considered the harbinger of 'boredom', be it because of their plain walls and quiet ambience or the endless rows of books that only attract a select few. However, at Kings' School Nad Al Sheba, things take a slightly different turn when it comes to reading and spending time at the library.

Reading is vital to education

Reading is fundamental to functioning in today's society. It is a vital skill required for success and accomplishment. Reading is important because it aids the growth and development of human mind. It’s like any other muscle in our bodies. It needs regular exercise. Starting this exercise from an early age will not only help develop the imagination and language skills but it allows a child to discover new things, ideas and build on their word bank. Reading helps to improve vocabulary and is instrumental in how words can be used in different contexts. We believe good readers will have a positive self-image and be confident in how they conduct themselves in different social settings.

Reading is important because words whether spoken and written are the building blocks of life. The old saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword" sums up our ethos nicely. For the development of the human race it is imperative that the flow of ideas continues. We need to read and research to build on the good ideas. Only by reading can we equip our future generations with necessary tools to tackle challenges they may face in an unknown future.

Here at Kings' School Nad Al Sheba, we do serious learning but in fun ways. We have introduced various reading schemes to help develop a real love of reading.

Kings' Library Mystery Checkout!*?

Mystery Checkout week takes place once every month. This scheme was introduced by Mrs Khan during World Book Day 2015 to encourage students to read different genres.

A child checks out a mystery book from the library. They won’t know what the book is until they get home! The idea behind mystery checkout is to allow children to read something different than what they would normally choose for themselves. We have carefully selected age appropriate books from different genres for each year group and wrapped them up in paper.

Accelerated Reader Quiz

Accelerated Reader (AR) quizzes are available on fiction and non-fiction books. Most are in the form of reading practice quizzes, although some are curriculum-based with multiple subjects.

Many of the quizzes are available in an optional recorded voice format for primary-level books, in which the quiz questions and answers are read to the student taking the quiz. These quizzes are designed to help emerging English readers take the quizzes without additional assistance.

The Renaissance Place version of Accelerated Reader also includes quizzes designed to practice vocabulary. The quizzes use words from books, and are taken after the book has been read. Bookmarks can be printed out that display the vocabulary words so that, as students read, they can refer to the bookmark for help. The quizzes keep track of words learned.

All our year groups take these quizzes weekly and are awarded certificates for scoring above 90%.

Book Cafe

Another exciting activity was introduced by Mrs Khan during World Book Day last year when the library was transformed into a café. This was to encourage and introduce children to read many different genres. There were three menus, with a general genres menu on the back:
Starters - (Key Stage (KS) 1 - Ages 5-7)
Mains – (KS2 - Ages 7-9)
Desserts – (KS3 – Ages 9-11)

Students could either order a specific title from the three menus or find any other book from one of the recommended genres.

ReadIn7

Another initiative that was introduced was ReadIn7, or D.E.A.R - Drop Everything And Read. The whole school, including staff, stops, drops everything and reads for 7 minutes. A start and stop sound was played using different musical instruments and this was led by our six enthusiastic student library assistants from Years 4-6.

Competitions, Book Drives and More

We have a book swap day where children bring in books they have read and no longer wish to keep. So they can swap it with book brought by others. They get tokens for the number of books they bring and can use these against books on display. We organise this activity with our FONASS group.

At KSNAS, we host a number of writing and reading completions to encourage and raise literacy levels within our school. For instance, the upcoming Igniting Writing competition which is due to close during book week was launched as part of World Book Day celebrations. Certificates and prizes will be awarded to winners and a book with all the students’ writings will be published at the end.

A reading competition is being launched next month, in which a list of 100 books will be given out to students. These are books that children of primary school age should have read by the time they finish primary school. Top readers will be awarded certificates and prizes at the end of the school year.

We host a number of writing competition throughout the year and invite authors who run story reading and writing workshops for our students. These are truly inspirational for children who are not only encouraged to read but are compelled to write their own creative stories and enter various competitions internal and external.

We also have guided reading sessions that form an integral part of our curriculum. For example, in KS1 children will be helped by a member of staff during these sessions to decode words, using phonics, have discussions on the text read and do various writing activities to practice SPAG. At times, our Student Library Assistants are also involved in helping the younger students with their guided reading.