A Derby special school has been celebrating its pupils and their love of reading with a prize-giving ceremony.
Young people who attend The Kingmead Special School, Brighton Road, Alvaston were commended for their efforts as the awards scheme returned following a three-year absence due to covid.
Parents, carers, staff and governors came together to celebrate the achievements of pupils, who were handed awards in five categories; consistent improvement in reading over three years, most improved, consistent improvement in reading, hardest effort in reading and excellent start to reading for Year 7 pupils.
The Year 7 pupils each received a special book on how to write a story, with tips on how to transfer their love of reading into their writing.
The names of all winners were then placed into a hat, where School Governor Will Broderick and Executive Head Teacher Mike Pride selected pupils to receive Amazon vouchers for the top prizes.
Kingsmead governor Will Broderick and Executive Head Teacher Mike Pride with pupil Brendan.
Mr Pride said: “It’s great that we can come together as a community and celebrate a love of learning. Reading is such a valuable skill to have and it is important that we commend those who have made progress.”
“Our staff have worked tremendously hard over the past five years to improve Kingsmead School, often giving up their own time for events such as the reading awards and for that I’d like to say a huge thank you.”
Liz Sanger is Head of the Special School and was previously Head of English. She said: “One of the most important jobs we do as teachers is to empower the pupils and, over the past couple of years, key milestones and events have been missed due to covid.
“We have worked hard, though, on the literature our pupils study and this has paid dividends as pupils now study texts such as An Inspector Calls and A Christmas Carol, and are leaving with impressive GCSE literature outcomes.
“There has been a big improvement in English because of this.”
Fourteen-year-old Kegan Davies received an award from Taj Mahay, Head of English at Kingsmead Special School. She said: “I have been so impressed with Kegan and the progress he has made. It was a pleasure to hand him his award and, hopefully, we can host more celebration events in the future to recognise the pupils’ hard work and progress.”
Football fan Kegan – who supports Coventry City – has enjoyed reading about the life of ex-England international turned TV pundit, Gary Lineker.
He said: “I enjoy football – I play locally for Allenton United – and enjoyed reading about Gary Lineker. Dad says he has noticed a difference in me at home.”
Kegan also said that he finds Kingsmead therapy dog Wilf a big help. He said: “Wilf comes into school on a Wednesday and he’ll sit with us whilst we read. He helps to relax me.”
Another award winner was Year 9 pupil Harry Kapp who says that ‘the teachers have been helping me to improve my reading’ while Connor Macarthur has just finished reading David Walliams’ book ‘Demon Dentist.’
He said: “I really enjoy reading and have even read aloud in class. I’m looking forward to enjoying more books.”
